The law including legislation such as the Occupational Health & Safety Act 1983 imposes stringent obligations on employers to ensure the health and safety of their employees. The use of pre-employment medical examinations is one tool that employers can use to assess the suitability of a job applicant for a particular position and protect themselves from prosecution or claims for compensation or damages. At the same time, however, legislation such as The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Commonwealth) ("DDA ") and The Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 (New South Wales) ("ADA") affords protection to individuals against discrimination. This legislation is intended to ensure, as far as is practicable, that people with disabilities are treated equally to other members of the community and are brought into the mainstream of our society as far as possible. It makes it unlawful for employers to discriminate against prospective employees because of their disability
History
Citation
This conference paper was originally published as Sholz, D, How to use pre-employment medical examinations and comply with Anti-Discrimination Legislation, in Aziz, N (ed), Coal 1998: Coal Operators' Conference, University of Wollongong & the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, 1998, 47-55.