14-12-09 09:39

Equality Bill amendment on pre-employment questionnaires

The Equality Bill has now been passed by the House of Commons and will progress to the House of Lords with an amendment which restricts the use of pre-employment questionnaires about health or disability during the recruitment process.

The clause regarding pre-employment questionnaires aims to address concerns raised by disability organisations that, because there is no restriction under the Disability Discrimination Act, there is fairly widespread use of such enquiries by employers to discriminate against people who declared a disability by not selecting them for interview or other selection stages. 

The amendment means that an employer will be deterred from asking candidates questions about their health until after they have shown they meet some of the non-health criteria of a job. If an employer asks a question before this stage it may be found to have directly discriminated against a disabled candidate. 

The Bill outlines specific instances where the employer can make health and disability-related enquiries before shortlisting a candidate after an interview.  These are for the purposes of:

• making reasonable adjustments to enable the disabled person to participate in the recruitment process;
• monitoring diversity in applications for jobs; supporting positive action in employment for disabled people;
• enabling an employer to identify suitable candidates for a job where there is a genuine occupational requirement for the person to be disabled;
• and national security vetting.  

If an applicant is rejected after an employer makes an enquiry that is not permitted, the burden of proof in an Employment Tribunal will shift to the employer.

A new 'Easy Read' version of the Equality Bill has been published to help improve understanding of the Bill.

Source: The Workplace Law Network.