Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine

Original Article

The Actual Implementing Status of the Preplacement Medical Examination after the Annulment of the Preemployment Medical Examination: Chunhui Suh, Jong Tae Lee, Dae Hwan Kim, Byung Chul Son, Chang Hee Lee, Hui Dong Kim, Jin Hong Ahn; Korean Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 2008;20(3):174-181. Published online September 30, 2008; DOI: https://doi.org/10.35371/kjoem.2008.20.3.174

OBJECTIVES
We investigated the status of the preplacement medical examination after the revision of the industrial safety and health law on Oct. 7, 2005 by the Ministry of Labor.
METHODS
Preplacement medical certificates of 6,507 recruits issued by two hospitals in Busan, Kyeongnam Province from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2006 were reviewed. Telephone interviews were performed to the recruits with disease and self-reported questionnaires were administrated to health and safety personnel from May 1 to Sep. 30, 2007.
RESULTS
Interviews were conducted with 185(56.1%) recruits with disease, 51(27.4%) of whom were rejected for employment due to the preplacement medical certificate. The questionnaire survey for the health and safety personnel revealed that 39(22.9%) personnel were unaware of the annulment of the preemployment medical examination. Eighty(48.8%) of the health and safety personnel answered that they performed a preplacement medical examination after employment, and 63(37.3%) made a practical application of the workers' placement. The recruits with chronic conditions were refused employment: 20 (11.8%) due to hypertension, 21(12.4%) diabetes mellitus and 22(13.0%) hyperlipidemia. The recruits with work-related diseases were also refused employments: 76(44.4%) due to lumbar spine abnormality and 75(43.8%) hearing loss.
CONCLUSIONS
Despite the annulment of the pre-employment medical examination, a preplacement medical examination was often used to discriminate among healthy and diseased recruits. Employers must respect the law for the point of time of the preplacement medical examination and the payment of cost. The government should publicize the revision of the objectives of the law. We suggest that health professionals elucidate the job fitness through the development of the assessment tools and maintain the confidentiality of recruits.

Citations

Citations to this article as recorded by

Perception of and attitude toward ethical issues among Korean occupational physicians
Junghye Choi, Chunhui Suh, Jong-Tae Lee, Segyeong Lee, Chae-Kwan Lee, Gyeong-Jin Lee, Taekjoong Kim, Byung-Chul Son, Jeong-Ho Kim, Kunhyung Kim, Dae Hwan Kim, Ji Young Ryu
Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.2017;[Epub] CrossRef
The effect of university students' approach to health information on improvement of health behavior
Seung-Dae Kim, Myung-gwan Kim
Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society.2015; 16(5): 3268. CrossRef

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Original Article

Discriminating Function of Preemployment Medical Examination and Necessity of Changing over to Preplacement Medical Examination in Korea: Sang Hwan Han, Sung Chul Chung, Myung Hag Lee, Dong Bin Song; Korean Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 1997;9(1):170-177. Published online February 28, 1997; DOI: https://doi.org/10.35371/kjoem.1997.9.1.170

Abstract PDF

In Korea, every worker should undergo a preemployment medical examination according to Law for Occupational Safety and Health. But evaluation of it has not been previously carried out. Thus a telephone survey of 213 establishments of Inchon area for evaluation of preemployment medical examination in Korea was conducted. One hundred and fourteen companies(46.5% of all the subjects) were examined medically on preemployment, 47 establishments(41.2% of this study subjects) reevaluated workers by each establishment's medical criteria, and only less than half of diseased workers(DM 38.6% ; hypertension 42.1%, HBV carrier 28.0 % ; active pulmonary tuberculosis 7.9 %; back pain 12.3 %, and noise induced hearing loss 18.4 %) were employed. Employee's fees for preemployment medical examination were covered by 53.5 % of all the subjects. From our survey, it is clear that preemployment medical examination plays discriminating role on the employment of workers based on health status. We thus proposed to change over from preemployment medical examination to preplacement examination based on the evaluation of essential job functions and reasonable accommodation.

Citations

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Participation inequality in the National General Health Examination based on enterprise size
Young Joong Kang, Jong Heun Park, Huisu Eom, Bohwa Choi, Seyoung Lee, Ji-Won Lee, Jun-Pyo Myong
Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.2017;[Epub] CrossRef
Employment Discrimination Against Schizophrenia
Mary V. Seeman
Psychiatric Quarterly.2009; 80(1): 9. CrossRef

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