Canadian Occupational Safety

APRIL/MAY 2017 25 within your industry or workplace. Usually, MSDs in the history of your workplace is the best way to determine whether or not it is legitimate to use these evaluations." Once you have determined MSDs are an issue, you next need to decide what occupations will be tested. Not all jobs are going to be subject to functional fi tness evaluations, just those that are high risk. For example, offi ce workers will likely not be suitable for testing. Next, the essential duties of each job that will be subject to the evalua- tions must be identifi ed. "We see a lot of generic job descriptions that might say 'physical require- ment' but they don't drill down deep enough, generally, to what the actual requirements are," says Mike Allegretto regional manager, CBI Workplace Solutions in Victoria. "How much do they have to lift? How often do they have to lift it? Is this once a day or 10 times an hour for six hours a day? What kinds of postures and positions are they in? How long are they in those postures and positions for?" To determine this, the testing provider visits the work site and assesses and measures exactly what the workers do. This requires extreme detail to ensure employers do not inadvertently fi nd themselves in violation of a candidate's human rights. "If the employer just says, 'We know it's a heavy job, so we are going to go with the standard defi nition of heavy: 80 pounds,' but if you haven't mea- sured that in the workplace and proven that is an essential job demand, you could be discriminating against a certain employee population," says Alle- gretto. "Even if you say 'Lift 50 pounds fl oor to waist,' is that fl oor to waist for everybody? For the six-foot-nine guy or the four-foot-six person? Saying that the bin is 72 inches above ground, that's the detail we're looking for." To establish a bona fi de occupational requirement (BFOR), employers must be able to prove it does not discriminate on a prohibitive ground, there is a rational connection between testing and performance, the stan- dard is made in good faith and the standard is reasonably necessary to accomplish the work. "The larger the scope you try and screen for, you're exposing yourself as the employer to more access points to possible discrimination, so you want to make sure it's essential," says Allegretto. Sometimes, employers might think something is an essential job func- tion when it really can be modifi ed. For example, lifting an 80-pound box might seem to be a requirement of the job, but can two workers lift it instead of one? Can the box be opened and items taken out individually? "You need to sort of tease out what the essential function is because if you don't get that right, you can open yourself up to legal issues because really the job is not as heavy as what you're testing for," says Chapman. Once the physical demands analysis is created, it has to be validated, meaning a sample of workers at the company test it to make sure it accu- rately represents the tasks they do on a regular basis. "It helps to work out the bumps in the program before you go live with actual candidates. It's developing protocol and testing on employees so you get that feedback from them and work through things to make sure it's running as smoothly as you would like," says Chapman. After any necessary tweaks are made and the physical demands analysis is complete, human resources needs to make it clear on job ads that the successful candidate will be required to pass a functional fi tness evaluation. This is necessary from a legal standpoint. Once a candidate receives a conditional offer of employment, he is ready The exam consists of a comprehensive history, current health status, review of physiological systems and physical examination. It takes 45 minutes to an hour to complete and consists of four parts: Source: CannAmm Occupational Testing Services The clinic obtains a consent for release of clinical information both past and present. A physician reviews all the clinical information to determine fi tness for duty and provide interventions when required. The subject's medical history is documented and a comprehensive head-to-toe physical assessment is performed to identify current and potential future limiting medical conditions. The fi nal fi tness status is confi dentially and securely reported to the authorized company representative. 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Part 1 : Part 2 : Part 3 : Part 4 : within your industry or workplace. Usually, MSDs in the history of your workplace is the best way to determine whether or not it is legitimate to use these evaluations." Once you have determined MSDs are an issue, you next need to decide what occupations will be tested. Not all jobs are going to be subject to functional fi tness evaluations, just those that are high risk. For example, offi ce workers will likely not be suitable for testing. Next, the essential duties of each job that will be subject to the evalua- tions must be identifi ed. "We see a lot of generic job descriptions that might say 'physical require- ment' but they don't drill down deep enough, generally, to what the actual requirements are," says Mike Allegretto regional manager, CBI Workplace Solutions in Victoria. "How much do they have to lift? How often do they have to lift it? Is this once a day or 10 times an hour for six hours a day? What kinds of postures and positions are they in? How long are they in those postures and positions for?" To determine this, the testing provider visits the work site and assesses and measures exactly what the workers do. This requires extreme detail to ensure employers do not inadvertently fi nd themselves in violation of a candidate's human rights. "If the employer just says, 'We know it's a heavy job, so we are going to go with the standard defi nition of heavy: 80 pounds,' but if you haven't mea- sured that in the workplace and proven that is an essential job demand, you could be discriminating against a certain employee population," says Alle- gretto. "Even if you say 'Lift 50 pounds fl oor to waist,' is that fl oor to waist for everybody? For the six-foot-nine guy or the four-foot-six person? Saying that the bin is 72 inches above ground, that's the detail we're looking for." To establish a bona fi de occupational requirement (BFOR), employers must be able to prove it does not discriminate on a prohibitive ground, there is a rational connection between testing and performance, the stan- dard is made in good faith and the standard is reasonably necessary to accomplish the work. "The larger the scope you try and screen for, you're exposing yourself as the employer to more access points to possible discrimination, so you want to make sure it's essential," says Allegretto. Sometimes, employers might think something is an essential job func- tion when it really can be modifi ed. For example, lifting an 80-pound box might seem to be a requirement of the job, but can two workers lift it instead of one? Can the box be opened and items taken out individually? "You need to sort of tease out what the essential function is because if you don't get that right, you can open yourself up to legal issues because really the job is not as heavy as what you're testing for," says Chapman. Once the physical demands analysis is created, it has to be validated, meaning a sample of workers at the company test it to make sure it accu- rately represents the tasks they do on a regular basis. "It helps to work out the bumps in the program before you go live with actual candidates. It's developing protocol and testing on employees so you get that feedback from them and work through things to make sure it's running as smoothly as you would like," says Chapman. After any necessary tweaks are made and the physical demands analysis is complete, human resources needs to make it clear on job ads that the successful candidate will be required to pass a functional fi tness evaluation. This is necessary from a legal standpoint. Once a candidate receives a conditional offer of employment, he is ready The exam consists of a comprehensive history, current health status, review of physiological systems and

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