The tragic outcome of Germanwings Flight 9525 has raised that perennial question – how much should employers know about the psychological and medical condition of their employees?
Privacy laws in many countries currently limit the amount of information that can be known and recorded by employers, although on safety and health grounds employers may usually carry out drug and alcohol testing if they suspect employees may not be fit to drive, sail, fly or operate potentially dangerous machinery. But is there not a case for mandatory fitness examinations on a regular basis for some types of jobs?
I have always thought there is a paradox at the heart of the medical privacy debate. Employers are expected to make adjustments for staff with medical conditions – but how are they expected to make such adjustments if they are prevented from obtaining the required data? The most widespread health threats in the modern world are stress and its frequent consequence depression, yet these are often invisible disabilities as their victims frequently put on a “brave face” or blame other ailments for their absences. Stress is often experienced under a cloak of shame and few people wish to admit their loneliness or isolation.
None of us wish to see such a deliberate act of cold-hearted murder again as that on that bleak alpine mountainside. A company does not have to be an airline to find such an event in its midst. Think of a chemical plant or power station, a construction site or fire in a high rise block. Many of these could be avoided with more medical surveillance and other warning signals.
If we go back to the Germanwings incident I must ask the question no-one has seemed yet to ask. Why was an aeroplane flying between Barcelona and Dusseldorf over the French alps at Digne-les-Bains? If you draw a line between southern Spain and north-west Germany it hardly makes sense to fly on such a course. And if the plane was so far off course why didn’t air traffic control alert the aircraft before the pilot was left alone in the cabin? How many early warning signals are you currently ignoring about potential disasters in your operations?