Could employers refuse to hire recovered cancer victims?

W

Worried62

Registered User
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23
Hi,
just wondering if I developed a serious illness such as cancer, while between jobs, such as on Jobseekers Allowance and it appeared to have been cured, or at least in remission, would employers refuse to take me on? (It is my understanding that employers will take on disabled people, so this forms part of the grounds for my question)
 
I don't know if you'd even have to disclose that to an employer. But, no, they shouldn't disciminate even if you still had cancer
 
Hi worried, I shouldn't think it would bar you from employment some employers hire private medical firms to carry out physicals for pre employment and may ask as par of the course about you medical history for past 5 years, I can understand if you want to be a train driver you history of heart conditions ect, but I can not see cancer after he is cured been a problem, I probabily wouldn't even mention it, and if they have a problem with u haven had cancer stuff them, best of look anyway
 
Pre-employment medicals are a bit of a minefield. In theory, the medical should only ask about issues relevant to the job in question, but this doesn't usually happen. Sometimes, participation in the pension is used as the excuse to ask lots of irrelevant questions.

The real question is how could you prove that the employer used the cancer history as the reason for not employing you.

The UK have partially addressed this just recently by banning irrelevant medical questions prior to job offer stage.
 
my pre employment interview involved providing a urine sample. this was tested and I was told "well you're not pregnant anyway!" I also had to fill out a form about medical history and family medical history. Not all employers do medicals though.
 
My employer asked me to answer medical questions and a few years ago used to make people pee in a cup. It was because they provide death in service benefit and afaik they didn't take it into account towards suitability for the job
 
Complainer said:
Were you told beforehand that they would be checking for pregnancy?
Click to expand...

No, but its not the kind of thing you can hide! I wasn't pregnant. If I was and was told I wasn't getting the job based on the medical you can imagine the field day I could have had. Maybe it was the nurse trying to make small talk but God knows what she would have said if I was pregnant!

Incidentally, I went for a promotion (which I got) and I was pregnant when I signed the contract for that position but didn't have to do a medical as I was a current employee. And a few weeks before starting maternity leave I was offered a position in a different county that was the same grade as the one before I got the promotion so I turned it down (because I had since been promoted) but if I hadn't they would have had to hire me even though I would have been going on maternity leave the day I started!
 
And for those reasons employers are not keen on hiring people they know to be pregnant.
 
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