Are pre-employment checks necessary when changing jobs?
The signing of an employment contract entails an appointment with an occupational physician and a series of examinations to confirm the person’s fitness to undertake his or her duties. The tests are arranged by the employer and the cost is borne by them. There are doubts about this when the employee changes job position. At that point, human resources officers often wonder whether, in such a situation, the employee should be issued with a new certificate confirming his or her ability to perform the tasks of the new job.
Pursuant to the applicable provisions of the Labor Code, the employer requests the employee or candidate to undergo preventive medical check-ups. Once they are completed, the physician issues a medical certificate, which confirms that there are no contraindications to employment in a particular position, or that such contraindications exist.
Pre-employment medical checks cover new hires, juvenile employees reassigned to other jobs, and other employees reassigned to jobs involving adverse health factors or arduous conditions.
HR discussions about the necessity of prescreening referrals most often concern the last group of employees, that is, those who assume duties in arduous conditions or where adverse health factors may be present. In such a situation, it is important to remember that in terms of occupational medicine, we consider the workplace to be a mix of exposures, that is, harmful and arduous factors. As such, when a person changes position and is to come into contact with new exposures, they must undergo pre-employment medical checks.
- Let’s imagine that an employee is hired as a chief specialist, and the job profile shows that it is an office job at the computer, 8 hours a day. Then, the employee is promoted to the position of manager, plus they are now supposed to drive a Cat. B company car. Added to this are the dangers of a constant flow of a lot of information and readiness to respond. In such a situation, we must request that the employee undergo pre-screening, and include all previous and new exposures on the referral in order to assess the health status for taking up a managerial position - says Teresa Domańska, Director of TU Zdrowie’s Health Insurance Office.
As the cited example reveals, in order to successfully undertake new job duties, in addition to competence, the paperwork of referring an employee for pre-employment assessments must also be completed. Only after a certificate of fitness for the managerial position is received can the employee be allowed to work the job with said new responsibilities.
Who is exempt from pre-employment checks?
Pre-employment medical checks do not apply to persons reemployed with the same employer for a position with the same health and safety conditions. A subsequent employment contract should be signed within 30 days after the termination or expiration of the previous contract with that employer. Importantly, the certificate must be valid.
Employment with a new employer for a given position takes place when the following four conditions are met:
- the break between employment with the previous employer does not exceed 30 days;
- the position with the new employer has the same conditions in terms of health risks and health requirements;
- the employee will present a valid medical certificate with the referral for pre-employment medical checks;
- the prospective employer finds that the working conditions described in the medical check referral are consistent with the offered conditions.
Please note that the above pre-employment medical check exemptions do not apply to particularly hazardous work. Even if an employee performs such work for a short period of time, he or she may be at risk of health deterioration, and consequently to the emergence of contraindications to employment.
Pre-employment checks during epidemic emergency
During the pandemic, as well as during the still-present epidemic threat, issues related to periodic examinations are regulated by the Law on Special Measures for the Prevention, Prevention and Control of COVID-19, Other Communicable Diseases and Related Emergencies. It introduces new norms for pre-employment medical assessments, which state, for example, that if an employee changes employers for a non-office job, the initial period of 30 days after the termination or expiration of the previous employment relationship is extended to 180 days.
Office and administrative employees do not have to complete pre-employment medical assessments if they have a valid medical certificate certifying that there are no contraindications to such work and the employer determines that the conditions existing at the previous employer’s company correspond to the conditions existing at the position for which the employee is hired.
- In short, with the above-mentioned conditions, it is possible to do away with the need to refer the candidate for pre-employment checks while observing responsibility, that is, making an assessment that the valid medical certificate held by such a person stating that there are no contraindications to work is applicable to the new job. The future employer should compulsorily weigh up whether there will be a change in the work environment, and thus whether there will be the same dangerous, adverse health and arduous factors and if so, whether their intensity will remain the same as before - Teresa Domańska adds.
