Medical Screening & Fitness to Work Procedure
Part of Food Industry Hub’s FSQMS Policies and Procedures Suite.
The Medical Screening & Fitness to Work Procedure forms part of the Food Industry Hub FSQMS Policies and Procedures Suite.
It defines how health screening and fitness-to-work requirements are established and applied so that relevant symptoms, infections, diseases, conditions and contact with infectious disease are reported, assessed and managed before affected work or access is permitted.
The procedure covers employees, agency staff, contractors, visitors and other non-employee persons where health status may affect work with open food, entry to production or product-handling areas, site entry, or access to raw material, preparation, processing, packing and storage areas. Its value lies in combining predefined health criteria, notification and screening routes, defined authority for uncertain cases, access restrictions and medical advice where needed into one food-safety control framework.
Define health criteria before work or access is allowed
Technical or Quality Management is responsible for defining and maintaining the health criteria used to determine when a person must be restricted from production or product-handling areas or excluded from the site. The criteria are based on applicable legislation and current food-safety or public-health guidance, including communicable-disease and fitness-to-work guidance, with recognised international public-health guidance considered where relevant.
The procedure also protects an important boundary: the predefined criteria address reasonably foreseeable symptoms, infections, diseases and conditions, but they are not treated as an exhaustive list of every illness or medical condition that may arise. Where guidance or the predefined criteria do not provide a clear basis for deciding the significance of a condition, Technical or Quality Management determines the food-safety restriction and obtains expert medical advice where additional medical information is required.
Make health reporting part of staff awareness
The procedure requires employees and agency staff to be made aware, before affected work begins, of the symptoms, infections, diseases, conditions and relevant contact that must be reported and may prevent work with open food or access to affected areas.
Human Resources includes the applicable reporting and exclusion requirements within pre-work training, the company handbook or equivalent controlled employee information. Department Managers or Supervisors then ensure that the people under their control have received the applicable information before commencing affected work. Training delivery and records remain governed by the Training & Competence Procedure, while the controlled health criteria and communication materials are maintained through document-control arrangements.
Control employee and agency staff health notifications
Employees and agency staff are required to report relevant symptoms, infection, disease, conditions or contact before attendance, or whenever the information becomes known while on site. Department Managers or Supervisors receive those notifications and apply any restriction that is clearly determined by the predefined health criteria.
Where the reported condition is unlisted or its significance is uncertain, the procedure prevents unrestricted work or access from continuing on assumption. The matter is referred to Technical or Quality Management, and the existing restriction remains in place until the required determination has been completed.
Screen contractors and visitors before site entry proceeds
For contractors, visitors and other non-employees, health screening forms part of the site-entry process. Where permitted by law, the visitor health questionnaire uses the predefined health criteria to identify symptoms, infections, diseases, conditions and relevant contact that may prevent site entry or access to production and product-handling areas.
The site contact or department responsible for the visitor or contractor ensures the questionnaire is completed and reviews the declaration against the predefined criteria before entry proceeds. Clear exclusion criteria result in the corresponding entry restriction. Unlisted, uncertain or subsequently reported health information is referred to Technical or Quality Management, with access remaining restricted until the applicable decision has been made. A person who has not completed the required visitor health questionnaire is not permitted to proceed through the site-entry process.
Apply work, area and site restrictions with clear authority
The procedure distinguishes between site exclusion and restriction from production or product-handling areas. Where a condition meets a predefined site-exclusion criterion, the person is not permitted to enter or remain on site while the restriction applies. Where a condition meets a production or product-handling exclusion criterion, the person is prevented from entering or continuing work in the affected areas while that restriction applies.
Responsibility for maintaining the restriction follows the relationship with the person concerned. Department Managers or Supervisors implement and maintain restrictions for employees and agency staff. Site contacts or departments responsible for contractors and visitors maintain the applicable site or area restriction for non-employee persons. Human Resources manages employment-related administration where restrictions affect employees or agency staff.
Use expert medical advice without weakening food-safety authority
Expert medical advice is sought when Technical or Quality Management determines that additional medical information is needed to decide whether a person is fit for the relevant work or site access. Human Resources coordinates or receives that advice and retains confidential medical information, sharing with Technical or Quality Management only the information necessary to support the food-safety decision.
Technical or Quality Management uses the relevant medical information to decide whether restrictions may be removed, maintained or changed. Where required medical advice is outstanding, the existing food-safety restriction remains in place until sufficient information is available for the decision to be made.
Connect fitness-to-work control with the wider FSQMS
The procedure sits between personnel-hygiene expectations, site-access arrangements and production-area movement controls. Visitor recording and general access controls are governed through site-security arrangements, while entry to and movement within production and product-handling areas after satisfactory health screening remain subject to the Layout, Product Flow & Segregation Procedure.
It also links to the Training & Competence Procedure for training delivery and records, the Document Control Procedure for controlled health criteria and communication materials, and the Record Completion & Maintenance Procedure for completed visitor health questionnaires, expert medical advice and fitness information. Those interfaces keep the fitness-to-work controls connected to the controlled information, awareness, access and evidence arrangements that support the wider FSQMS.