Andrew Dickens Afternoons

Well another day and another set of examples that display that discrimination and unconscious bias is a fundamental part of the human psyche and we’ll never be rid of it.A week or two ago we heard about the café that demanded to know a job applicants medication. Considering the applicants medication was for treating ADHD and anxiety the applicant felt as though this would prejudice her application, so she lied.We had quite a conversation about it on the radio. Firstly there was the point of the employer. Several people said that it was the employers right to know itf there was any impediment to the applicant doing the job.That was countered by many who said that the medication was to treat the condition which might impact on the job, and so the condition no longer existed, so it was not the right of the employer to know.Many said these are the sorts of conversations that need to be had as part of the negotiation around the job and not at the application level.We wondered at the time whether this practice was