Disclosing medical issues in Canada

leggo

I don't know if any Canadians have been following the thread about disclosing that you have bc on another forum, but it's interesting. Just wondering what other Canadians have experienced. I've had a total of six jobs in my life, and I had to have medical questionnaires filled out for all but two of them. I didn't need to for working at Micky D's and retail in my teens, but my other jobs (airport, school, hospitals), I had to get medical forms filled out by a GP. There's no way I could have lied or covered anything up. Is this a Canadian thing? what I find so weird about it is that medical care in the US seems to be connected to your employment, where ours is not so it seems odd it's not the other way around. Any Canadians care to weigh in? Maybe my experience is province-specific. I'm so curious. 

exbrnxgrl

In the US, at least CA, it would be discriminatory and illegal to ask someone to give a medical history when applying for a job, unless the nature of the job requires that one not have certain physical maladies (airline pilots, for instance). What is that info used for in Canada?

DiveCat

I have probably had 15 jobs. The only job I ever had to disclose medical information for (and be subject to physical and medical tests) was the military and when I was considering the police force.

Those make sense. Those were both physically demanding, and well, government-controlled. The information was also necessary for the job requirements.

I don't know why medical information would be considered disclosable for the majority of jobs and indeed in most cases it would be a violation of privacy legislation (or human rights legislation) to collect that information. They are not even permitted to ask your family status or plans, so yeah, unless there are certain physical requirements in the job necessitating the medical information or it is a "specialty" area granted specific exceptions, no employer should be having you fill out medical questionnaires. Some medical  information (vaccination history, etc) is I imagine important for schools, hospitals, etc though and collecting certain information is permitted. There are still laws in place as to how they collect it, what they do with it, how they disclose it.

In Canada there is both federal privacy legislation (PIPEDA) and provincial privacy legislation. Of course, there is also federal human rights laws addressing discrimination, including for disability.

leggo

Divecat, your post answers my question. Thanks! All of the jobs I had that required medical forms WERE government controlled, so now it makes sense. I just didn't have enough varied employment history to figure it out.

Edited to add: I forgot about my crappy insurance co. job....I needed a medical for that one too, but also gov't controlled.

DiveCat

No problem. I expect the information was also required for the job requirements (like you could not have an infectious disease like TB if you were working in school or hospital!) but I also expect the information collected was limited to what was relevant to job requirements. Like if you were working in a government job that was in an administrative office (not in hospital, school, etc) they could not likely ask you your vaccination history. So they still can't ask you EVERYTHING. To clarify, private organizations CAN also ask information but it does still need to be related to the job requirements and there are still laws in place for how they collect, handle, use, and distribute that information. I don't know where you are located, but if you want more info most provinces also have some form of website that provides more info on employee rights and such if you were interested in further research. 

Here for example is information by Ontario Human Rights Commision on employers asking for medical information (scroll down):

http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/iv-human-rights-issues-all-stages-employment/6-requesting-job-related-sensitive-information

Oh, look I found this too...a couple Q & A exactly on disclosing cancer/medical history to employers in the Globe & Mail:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/career-advice/experts/do-i-have-to-reveal-my-medical-history/article13736566/

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/career-advice/experts/i-had-breast-cancer-do-i-have-to-tell-a-potential-employer/article10973981/

leggo

Thanks, I learned something new today...and had a chuckle about having to get a medical at the insurance co. to sit on my butt all day in a cube.