21 replies to this topic

[Laura982]

Hi All 

 

We don't currently have a pre employment health questionnaire. I was wondering what people use to assess and ensure new employees are not carriers of anything. Does anyone have a template they can kindly share or point me in the direction of one please?

 

Many thanks

[kfromNE]

I've never heard of an employer doing this unless working in a hospital setting. 

 

During the initial training which is done first - GMPs are discussed. This includes the requirement that employees must inform their employer of foodborne illness, etc. Also the requirement about not working while under the influence of different drugs and alcohol when hired.  

 

What country are you in? Asking about people's health is a sensitive area. Doing it wrong can get you in trouble by the government and allow for lawsuits by an employee. 

[MDaleDDF]

I agree with K, you may be walking the line of legality, depending what you intend to ask...

 

All our hires, other than top tier folks, goes through a temp agency.   Then we don't have to worry about any of this stuff, they deal with it.

[TimG]

We handle it 2 ways:

1.  Employees all undergo health screening as part of their hiring packet, which is reviewed by HR. (I don't see this, I don't want to see this, this is why we have SHRMlmnop certified HR)
2. GMP training at hire and then annually touches on it several times: No person with open boils, sores, infected wounds or any other infectious or communicable disease is allowed to work with edible food products

As others have mentioned, use discretion here. Get your HR involved.

[Scampi]

Leave it to HR, in most locations you cannot legally ask, and the new hires are under no obligation to tell said employer

 

Where I am, it is illegal to even ask general health questions

[SQFconsultant]

Interestingly enough this is a area we are right now creating policy, etc on for our office staff and store/production locations.

 

We are creating an extensive health Q&A as a part of screening for all employees and this includes lifestyle questions plus questions such as if the person took the CV jab(s), if they have knowledge of the designator number or letter that was on the vial the solution came from and if they have taken one or more Covid PCR Nose swab tests.

 

We have already decided to form our own Employer Insurance division and offer 100% Health Care Coverage w/o deductible, thus knowing ahead of time (prior to hire) is paramount for the well-being of our company, fellow employees and our guests/members.

[jfrey123]

We keep it vague, but we do ask employees if they have an illness that can lead to open lesions, boils, sores, rashes that could affect food safety.  In the US (21 CFR 117.10) we are required to protect food, food packaging, and food contact surfaces from employees that could contaminate the areas where they work.  Training also requires them to inform supervisors if they end up with an open wound that requires bandages or if they contract something temporarily.

 

We don't require they tell us the specifics, but an employee who poses a risk must be excluded from our food handling or sanitation positions.

Edited by jfrey123, 03 June 2025 - 06:36 PM.

[Laura982]

Thanks all, im in the uk.

We don’t have a hr department to pick it up, but it’s a requirement of the standard. We’re not looking for mental health info or history of bad backs etc but has long been a requirement for salsa and brc.
Would a return to work questionnaire be suffice? Have you recentlt been Abroad, had typhoid, any boils or lesions etc.

Thanks

[Alex A.]

Hi Laura,

 

FSA has a template, I am using this with slight modification (SC7 - Fitness to Work Assessment) 

2872988 SC7.indd

- you can use this for existing food handlers, new food handlers on recruitment and for return to work after holiday or illness as well.

[GMO]

There is a simple one on the food standards agency website in the UK:

Fitness to work

 

If you work to specific schemes there will be more guidance for example, section 7.3 of BRCGS.

[GMO]

Hi Laura,

 

FSA has a template, I am using this with slight modification (SC7 - Fitness to Work Assessment) 

2872988 SC7.indd

- you can use this for existing food handlers, new food handlers on recruitment and for return to work after holiday or illness as well.

 

D'oh should have read your reply first!

[GMO]

I agree with K, you may be walking the line of legality, depending what you intend to ask...

 

Depending on where you are in the world.  In the UK and EU, you would be asked questions pertinent to food safety.  HR may ask other questions to establish things like if there is a disability but this is normally done by a third party and kept confidential.  

 

I find it baffling that the first two responses are "Woah!  Legal risk!"  Rather than "It's pretty essential to protect our products..."

[GMO]

Leave it to HR, in most locations you cannot legally ask, and the new hires are under no obligation to tell said employer

 

Where I am, it is illegal to even ask general health questions

 

It's not illegal to ask in the UK or EU.  If you visit a plant in the UK you will be asked some variation of the questions on the FSA link shared above as a visitor, let alone an employee.

 

Seems baffling to me why it could be in any way intrusive to ask if someone has had food poisoning in the last 48 hours when entering a food factory?

[TimG]

Here stateside we have been dancing around the 'don't give a reason for a lawsuit' thing for years now. Every facility I've been at strongly discourages management from asking health related questions, pretty sure HR doesn't ask these types of questions either. Is it illegal or can we be sued if I ask someone if they have a communicable disease? I'm not sure. I do know I can TELL THEM in training that if they DO have X or X they can't legally work around my food, so that's the route I take. 

Edit: And it's not unfounded. I had a tech who during a discussion about where they see themselves in 5 years said they wanted to start a family and have kids and all that. Fast forward several months, I happened to mention their goal and even said 'you could always come back to X if you wanted to get back into the swing of things' and that turned into them feeling I was discriminating against them because they planned on starting a family.. Thankfully others heard the discussion, and it got quickly proven that this particular person was (and was known for) reading into things that weren't there.

Anyway, yeah..we don't ask or  talk much about personal stuff here in the US.

Edited by TimG, 04 June 2025 - 12:02 PM.

[GMO]

That's sad, and also a food safety risk.  I also think it's vastly different to ask the last 48 hour of history of vomiting and diarrhoea vs intent to have children or another protected characteristic like potential disability.  How did you cope in Covid?  

 

Is there no way of working with HR or unions or something to find out what you can ask, what you can't and how that information is retained?  There are strong data protection laws around personal information in the UK and it can only be collected for a reason but this, to my mind is a reason.

 

Anyway, it appears the person asking is in the UK from the reference to SALSA so the FSA example is certainly a great place to start and while it's completely box ticking, I have put signage by clocking in machines to say something along the lines of:

 

"By clocking in, I confirm I am not suffering from vomiting, diarrhoea within the last 48 hours" etc. 

 

Nobody would have read it but it ticked a box for a retailer standard.

 

Be thankful anyway.  This is light touch!  20 years ago a full medical was sometimes required for the food industry AND I had to have stool testing for two chilled employers.  

[TimG]

We do a medical screen at hire. HR reviews it. I almost feel like we're splitting hairs with semantics here though, because we absolutely CAN (and do) have GMP training where we say, "Do you understand if you have any flulike symptoms, X and X and X that you cannot legally work with food?"

But yeah, I wouldn't feel comfortable asking them "do you have any diseases I should know about?"

I really don't feel there's any more protection (less risk) by asking the question and ticking a box.

[GMO]

We do a medical screen at hire. HR reviews it. I almost feel like we're splitting hairs with semantics here though, because we absolutely CAN (and do) have GMP training where we say, "Do you understand if you have any flulike symptoms, X and X and X that you cannot legally work with food?"

But yeah, I wouldn't feel comfortable asking them "do you have any diseases I should know about?"

I really don't feel there's any more protection (less risk) by asking the question and ticking a box.

 

You're probably right and it's probably more of a risk with visitors.

[jfrey123]

@TimG, pretty much how I've always handled it too.  From initial hiring to retraining to whatnot, there's a checkbox that lists all the criteria we would disqualify them from handling food with.  By checking the box, they agree none of the various things affect them, but if they cannot check that box, then we do not let them around food.  It's a tiptoe where we're not asking them to reveal their specific medical history, but we need to know if something is there that we have to legally make accommodations for.

[Laura982]

Thanks for all the interesting responses! 

 

So maybe I go with a pre employment questionnaire based on out visitor and return to work questionnaire!?

 

Thanks

[Alex A.]

If you already have a questionnaire, then yes I would go with that one. Just add options at the top, what is the reason the questionnaire is being filled out (pre employment, return to work etc.), just like in the FSA template.

[GMO]

Thanks for all the interesting responses! 

 

So maybe I go with a pre employment questionnaire based on out visitor and return to work questionnaire!?

 

Thanks

 

Yep, that's exactly what the FSA suggest.  

 

In fact I'm convinced most of these "Whhhaaah!  You can't ask that!" responses haven't clicked on the link to see how little is being asked.

[GMO]

There used to be a great longer document on the FSA on fitness to work but it looks as though it's been taken down.  I did find these though including something editable you could download:

 

Safer food better business caterers pack: personal hygiene (more overall personal hygiene stuff)

 

https://www.food.gov...stionnaire.docx

 

And this is the reference if anyone answers "yes" Management of Gastrointestinal Infections 2019

Edited by GMO, Yesterday, 09:34 AM.