During a meeting with a future employer, we want to appear as good as possible. We try to anticipate the questions that may be asked and somehow prepare for them. However, what if the employer asks something we don’t want to reveal to him? During a meeting with a future employer, we want to appear as good as possible. We try to anticipate the questions that may be asked and somehow prepare for them. But what if the employer asks something we don’t want to reveal to him?
Information that may be requested by the prospective employer
The Labor Code regulates the scope of information that a prospective employer may request. Art. 221 of the Labor Code stipulates that information such as name, date of birth, contact information, education, professional qualifications and history of previous employment must be made available. Requesting other data is possible only if it is necessary to realize a right or fulfill an obligation provided by separate regulations.
Can a future employer even ask if I am pregnant?
As a rule, an employer may not ask about the pregnancy of an employee candidate. It is also considered that he should not seek this information in other ways, such as by referring a woman for gynecological examinations or requiring information on the state of pregnancy in medical certificates. It is unlawful for an employer to behave in a way that-although he does not ask a question about the pregnancy directly-seeks to find out the answer through other methods. The employee does not have to disclose this information to him.
Work not allowed due to maternity protection
However, there is an exception to this rule, which is provided for by the Council of Ministers’ Regulation of April 3, 2017. On the list of works that are arduous, hazardous or harmful to the health of pregnant women and women who are breastfeeding a child. The appendix to this act is a list of jobs forbidden to pregnant and breastfeeding women. Among them, work is distinguished, for example:- associated with excessive physical exertion,- in cold, hot and fluctuating microclimates,- in exposure to harmful chemicals,- threatening severe physical or psychological injury.Importantly- the employer can not independently expand this inventory (for example, in the work regulations). In recruiting for positions in the above-mentioned circumstances, asking about a candidate’s pregnancy is the employer’s responsibility, which is the only way to find out whether she can do the job.
How to behave when the employer, however, asks about the pregnancy?
First: answer truthfully However, it is not difficult to imagine a situation in which a candidate who admits that she is pregnant will therefore not be considered during the recruitment process, thus depriving herself of the chance of employment.
Second: refusal to answer As pregnancy information is not listed in Art. 221 of the Labor Code, the employer does not have the right to ask such questions, and the recruiter may refuse to answer them. It seems that refusal is not the best solution when you want to appear as good as possible in front of a potential employer.
Third: ie. “the right to lie”
A woman is not obliged to give a truthful answer when it would not be beneficial to her at the moment, and the question asked would be an unlawful request to disclose personal information. The basis for the “right to lie” is taken from Art. 423 of the Civil Code in conjunction with Art. 300 of the Labor Code. To take advantage of the so-called. “right to lie,” the following conditions for an attack on a woman’s privacy must be met:
- Unlawfulness, whereby unlawfulness is understood as incompatibility with the entire legal system, which includes not only legal acts, but also principles of social intercourse,
- Directness, that is, a situation in which there is a temporal connection between an attack on privacy and the defense against that attack,
- The necessity of the defense, which means that the measure used (lying) is commensurate and adequate in relation to the degree of the attack and the level of threat to personal property (privacy).With the combined fulfillment of these circumstances, the recruiter has the right to conceal the truth.
What if the lie comes out?
In a situation where an employer unlawfully asks about a recruiter’s pregnancy and, under the influence of her lie, makes a hiring decision, she cannot evade the legal effects of her statement of intent to establish an employment relationship. This means that termination of employment for this reason is not possible. The so-called. “The right to lie” applies, however, only in situations in which the employer is not allowed to demand information about pregnancy.This is different when the employer’s duty is to ask about the state of a woman’s pregnancy (recruitment to positions forbidden to pregnant and nursing women, such as those involving excessive physical exertion). In such circumstances, a woman’s lie can be a reason for termination.
Author: Wiktoria Wojciechowska, MA.