Job interviews next week

Jules70

Hi All

I have 3 job interviews next week and I’m in bit of a dilemma as to whether I should tell them of my knee problems ,as I’m worried they won’t employ me if I tell them about my Oesteoarthiritis.
I feel under pressure to return back to employment ,as I cannot pay my bills on pip and universal credit and I have rent to find and 2 kids to support .
Can anyone on here advise please ??

Mike1

From the ACAS website:

Do employees have to tell their employers they have a disability?
Most employers know that they shouldn't ask applicants at interview if they have a disability or other health-related questions, except in a few very limited circumstances. This is to ensure that applicants are offered work on their own merits and are not discriminated against because of disability.

Do prospective employees have to disclose their disability to their employer?

There's no general duty for them to do so, but if they do volunteer this information, interviewers must not respond by asking further questions about it. They should take particular care not to be influenced by the information in their selection decisions.

Candidates should discuss their condition, however, when it might pose a risk at work to themselves or others.

And employers should ask candidates whether they need any 'reasonable adjustments', sometimes also called 'access requirements', for any part of the recruitment process. This is not the same as asking a candidate whether he or she is disabled.

What about employees?
If an employee with a disability would like their employer to make reasonable adjustments for them, then they may well have to disclose their condition.

Employers can't usually be held liable for failing to make reasonable adjustments if they did not know about the disability.

But employers are expected to do all they 'reasonably' can to find out if an employee is disabled.

If someone working for the employer - such as another employee, an occupational health adviser or recruitment agency - knows of the disability, the employer will not usually be able to claim it didn't know, according to the Equality and Human Rights Commission's Employment Statutory Code of Practice.

Once a disability has been disclosed, it should be kept confidential by the employer unless the employee has made it clear they are happy for the information to be shared.

Of course, in some instances, a disability may be obvious - for example, an amputee or wheelchair user - in which case confidentiality cannot be an issue.

In other instances, where the employee needs support from colleagues, or there are health and safety reasons, colleagues may also need to be aware.

For further info go to: https://www.acas.org.uk/

stickywicket

This is a question that has been asked before but I don't recall anyone coming back to tell us what they did or of the outcome.

Only you can say how far your disease is likely to affect your work attendance. Presumably you are only applying for jobs which you feel you'll be able to cope with without many absences but, as Mike has pointed out, you can't get reasonable adjustments unless they know.

Mike, thanks for a great link. I found this page which might be relevant. https://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1363

dreamdaisy

I think honesty has to be the best policy - if you do not tell any prospective employer about your OA, then take repeated time off (little bits here and there always add up to big bits and colleagues getting very annoyed at continually doing your job in addition to theirs) will not put you in a good light, there is every chance you could be perceived as an unreliable liar thus making good references harder to be written. Employers want reliable employees, sometimes we are anything but and they deserve to know in advance: they have responsibilities towards the disabled and need to put them in place for you.

The fact you have children and bills is neither here nor there because everyone has the latter and quite a few the former. The ubiquity of OA does not work in its favour, and it does make the live of those affected far from easy, but it has to be better all-round if future employers know. DD