{"id":227171,"date":"2018-02-23T18:00:36","date_gmt":"2018-02-23T16:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=227171"},"modified":"2018-02-23T16:02:22","modified_gmt":"2018-02-23T14:02:22","slug":"3-things-which-you-are-legally-required-to-tell-your-new-boss-in-any-job-interview-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/227171\/3-things-which-you-are-legally-required-to-tell-your-new-boss-in-any-job-interview-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"3 things which you are legally required to tell your new boss in any job interview in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trust is the cornerstone of any relationship, and an employment relationship is no exception.<\/p>\n

Employees and employers have very specific rights in terms of common law, as well as labour\u00a0legislation, and balancing these rights is crucial to a fair and successful employment relationship.<\/p>\n

This includes having open and earnest conversations between employees and management, and clear communication when a boundary has been crossed.<\/p>\n

However, is this still the case when you are simply applying for a job and are not officially considered an employee?<\/p>\n

Law firm Abrahams & Gross<\/a><\/strong> broke down exactly what you do and don’t have to disclose when in a job interview in South Africa.<\/p>\n

What are the employer\u2019s rights to information?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The employer has a right to full and accurate information pertinent to making the decision to employ an applicant.<\/p>\n

This right, like all rights, is not absolute and is subject to exceptions, such as when the information relates to personal circumstances.<\/p>\n

Section 6 of the Employment Equity Act of 1998 (EEA) prohibits discrimination against job applicants on numerous arbitrary grounds, which includes race, gender, pregnancy and age.<\/p>\n

What information is an employer not entitled to?<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to Abrahams & Gross, any information relating to the prohibited arbitrary criteria encompassed in section 6 of the EEA may be withheld.<\/p>\n

In practical terms, this means that a potential employer may not ask a job applicant questions pertaining to his or her HIV status (unless this question is medically relevant), marital status, sexual preference or religious practices.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, a woman does not have to divulge whether or not she is pregnant.<\/p>\n

Questions about disability are also considered to be unfair if such questions are discriminatory – however it is reasonable to enquire how a work environment can be adapted to make a disabled employee more comfortable.<\/p>\n

What information must an employee disclose?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A prospective employer may enquire about prior conduct or past transgressions where the nature or the seniority of the post requires him or her to do so.<\/p>\n

As such, an applicant has a duty to disclose all material information relating to past transgressions which could potentially impact the employment relationship<\/strong> or disqualify him or her from the new appointment.<\/p>\n

For example, a failure to disclose an employee\u2019s alcoholism<\/strong> has been considered to be a breach of contract in the past and can lead to dismissal.<\/p>\n

Dismissal is furthermore fair where an employee fails to disclose during an interview that he was dismissed due to gross negligence<\/strong> during the performance of his or her duties.<\/p>\n

However, it would seem that it is not necessary to disclose a conviction for contravening various provisions of the Insolvency Act.<\/p>\n

Criminal records and credit checks<\/strong><\/p>\n

A prospective employer may enquire as to any criminal records – however job applicants are advised to tread carefully in this regard.<\/p>\n

It would be unfair to consider past criminal records for minor offences which have no bearing on the requirements associated with the position.<\/p>\n

Regarding credit checks, a potential employer may not run such check without the consent of the job applicant. In addition, a credit check may only be requested by a potential employee if the candidate is being considered for a position which requires honesty while dealing with cash or finances.<\/p>\n

\n

Read:\u00a015 questions you should be prepared to answer at your next job interview<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Law firm Abrahams & Gross broke down exactly what you do and don’t have to disclose when in a job interview in South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":116476,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[12877,26],"class_list":["post-227171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-abrahams-and-gross","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227171"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":227589,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227171\/revisions\/227589"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}