to NOT want to fill in this form...?

[lilwelshyrs]

DH has a new job (yay!). He's had his contract posted to him and a funny Occupational Health form with it. He's expected to take a medical examination anyway (which is totally fine) but this questionnaire seems incredibly personal.
Nowhere in the offer letter does it say this questionnaire is compulsory to employment.

The form has questions like:
Who in your family has suffered from: Diabetes, asthma, mental disease ( disease what a terrible use of the word!), hayfever, TB, cancer.
This includes me... I'm not blood related FGS...

It also asks the most weirdly worded question... (any spelling errors are intentional!)
Have you ever smoked as much as one cigarette a day (or one cigar a week or and ounce of Tobacco a month) for as long as a year?

I reckon it's to do with suing culture - if your family have ever suffered from mental illness and you have a break down due to work related stress, then you can't blame your workplace...? And if you've ever smoked one cigarette on a boozey night out and you're frequently exposed to carcinogenic materials and you get lung cancer, then you can't blame work... Right?
So I can kinda see where they're coming from... Kinda... But it seems a bit much. Especially when you undergo a medical anyway.

Can he just tell them he won't fill out the form? We both feel very uncomfortable that they want his full family history...

AWBU?

That's all weirdly intrusive and I'm pretty sure illegal - don't quote me on that.

I.E if your DH fills in the form to say that his (only) DSis has diabetes then his employer are holding information about her on file without her knowledge and consent and there can be no question as to who the information relates to as your DH only has one DSis.

I thought there was a shake up a while ago with medical questionnaires where employers have to be more careful about what they ask employees so that they could not use information in a discriminatory manner.

I would definitely not be giving consent for my hypothetical DH to put info about my medical history on his contract.

I work in the public sector and it's totally normal for an occupational health form to be completed as part of the recruitment process. It's so that should you be offered the job, suitable measures can be put in place to support you with any medical conditions.

However, the form is put in a sealed envelope by the applicant and is addressed directly to the occupational health department. The form is not seen by either hr not the recruiting dept so doesn't affect the likelihood of the applicant being offered a job.

Only after the applicant has accepted the job does occupational health take any action regarding the contents of the form, and that can be something like a further assessment for back trouble or a phone call to discuss a long term health issue I.e. 'Do you take medication for your asthma/diabetes etc, do you have it on you at all times, can you make your line manager aware so they know what to do should you have an asthma attack/hypo etc'.

It sounds as though the company just have a really shit version of this which isn't fit for purpose. Just don't fill it out - I'd they really want it, they'll ask for it.

I would think it's the carer thing. Because if you're ill he might have to take time off work to look after your DC (if you have any).

He started new job today but obviously no one in the offices are in so maybe we'll find out on Monday. He hasn't filled the form in... We're going to go with "I don't know" and "I don't have consent to give out this information".

Chucks - the bit that goes into detail about HIS medical history he is obviously happy to fill in just in case anything happened whilst at work.
I'm intruiged as to what Occupational Health has to say about it when he goes for his medical!
I think a lot of his questions are arse covering questions so that he can't sue if he hurt himself at work for whatever reason as they can argue he had a bad back/smoked/exposed to harmful chemicals before he worked here.

this is not an OH form in anyway shape or form and due to the totally unprofessional nature of it I would be concerned about how this data is interpreted, stored and used.

My advice would be fill in the form if he really wants the job, but lie if needs be. (I never advise that normally but this form does not comply with any legislation I am aware of to do with medical data) they have no right to information on your husbands health let alone his wider family

And a liver function test??? Ekk, I would be worried about my registration if I was doing that without good reason.

Here is a very long booklet by ACAS on the subject of workplace health and safety
www.acas.org.uk/media/pdf/n/9/B11_1.pdf

I think the reason why he does a liver function test is because the industry is one on to be rife with alcoholism... At a guess, that's why anyway!

Thanks for link... That'll be some good bedtime reading

Lurking I'm sure I worked for that company .

Alcoholism in an industry is not a reason to do LFTs, a drug or alcohol test pre employment could be, I am always amazed how many people fail them, even though they know they are doing one!

Only once in 15 years have I known an employee have LFTs and he was a self confessed alcoholic, OHP took loads of advice on doing it, and I refused to do the test after advice from my professional body.
an outside Company did it eventually they had really robust policies and chain of custody.