Fitness Assessment Impairment and Disability

Module 6: Occupational Health Management - Section 4: Medical Fitness Assessment

OHM4.2: Inherent Health Requirements

The concept of Inherent Health Requirements of the job:

This is an important term. The Employment Equity Act (EEA) forbids medical testing unless the occupation has specific inherent requirements, and the tests used are designed to address the person’s fitness in terms of those inherent requirements (see below). These translate to minimum standards of fitness for an occupation.

This Act aims to prevent discrimination on grounds of disability.

The Employment Equity Act, Chapter II, section 7. states:

"Medical testing"

Medical testing of an employee is prohibited, unless-

legislation permits or requires the testing; or

it is justifiable in the light of medical facts, employment conditions, social policy, the fair distribution of employee benefits or the inherent requirements of a job."

It can be seen that clause 1(a) covers the situation, for instance, where the employee is exposed to lead at work and where lead testing is covered by the Lead Regulations.

The inherent requirements in clause 1 (b) are the key ingredients that determine medical fitness. Inherent requirements resolve into:

specified capabilities required, and
abnormalities that should NOT be present in an employee, for the tasks in the occupation to be performed safely.

Example 1: For a commercial heavy duty truck driver, capability requirements include minimum visual standards and the use of limbs, whereas abnormalities that should not be present include uncontrolled epilepsy, hypertension, diabetes.

Example 2: For an underground mine worker in areas of high heat and humidity, capability requirements include acclimatisation, while abnormalities that should not be present include impaired cardiac function, or the use of medication that impairs thermoregulation, which would increase employee vulnerability to the known and unavoidable hazards such as the risk of heat stroke.

Point to Ponder:

The underlying principle for establishing "inherent (minimum) requirements" of a job and "fitness to work" is to exclude vulnerable employees and those that increase the likelihood of injury to other people. It is not intended to deny employment to those who have illnesses or impairments in general which do not impact on their ability to perform their work safely.

The process of setting these positive (capability requirements) and negative (abnormalities which should not be present) inherent requirements of the job is an important part of the design of the OREPs.

REFERENCES:

The Employment Equity Act (EEA)