You are not obliged to volunteer your medical information to a prospective employer. It is your choice whether or not you disclose your condition. If the request is reasonable and you do not give the information, this could result in being excluded from the recruitment process.
You are not obliged to volunteer your medical information to a prospective employer. Although when you apply for a job, you may be asked to disclose whether you have an existing injury or medical condition. It is your choice whether or not you disclose your condition. If the request is reasonable and you do not give the information, this could result in being excluded from the recruitment process.
If you get the job and you were not honest about your condition your employer may treat this as misconduct and dismiss you or take other disciplinary action. You may also have difficulties obtaining workers injury compensation if your condition is worsened by your work and your employer never knew about your condition.
A request to disclose personal medical information may be reasonable if:
An employer may also request disclosure of medical conditions for the purposes of workers’ injury compensation insurance.
Any questions asked in an interview should be about your ability to perform the job and not your general health. An employer may ask for your consent to get a copy of your claims history from a workers compensation authority. Any request for information that is irrelevant to the inherent requirements of the position may breach anti-discrimination laws.
A pre-employment medical assessment may be lawful as long as it relates to the inherent requirements of the job and/or a workers’ injury compensation insurance.
Employers should use pre-employment medical assessments as part of the recruitment process and not rely on them solely. An employer should not use information from medical assessments to reject applications during the pre-interview stage. Pre-employment medical assessments should be given to all prospective employees and the results of the medical assessment must be kept confidential.
An employer may be able to assess your application based on your medical information if:
It is unlawful for prospective employers to refuse to employ you just because you have told them that you have a medical condition.
More detail can be found in the fact sheet which you should download.
Call our Telephone Information Service on Melbourne Metro (03) 9662 1933 or Regional Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania on 1800 331 617.
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