AMSTERDAM – Employers do not have the right to view an employee’s medical file should he or she be off sick. They can however ask a judge to have an independent doctor to view the file.
The magazine Medisch Contact wrote this in an article after it was pronounced by the European Court of Human Rights. The French company Eternit had instituted legal proceedings against the French government. Eternit lodged a complaint with the ECHR because it had not been allowed to view the medical file of an employee suffering from lung cancer. This meant that the company had no defence against the claim of a government service stating that the employee had become disabled due to occupational disease.
Privacy
The European Court states that the patient’s privacy and the medical professional confidentiality is of such an importance that the employer’s right to a fair trial may be restricted. If an employee should be declared disabled, this usually has financial consequences for the employer. This is exactly why employers want to be able to view an employer’s medical file in order to challenge such decisions. Doctors, however, are of the opinion that this is in violation of the medical professional confidentiality.
Source: Nu.nl