The primary purpose of health assessment fitness for work is to make sure that an individual is fit to perform the tasks involved effectively and without risk to their own or others’ health and safety. It is not the intention to exclude a person from a job but to make any necessary reasonable modifications or adjustments to the job to allow the person to work efficiently and safely.
Why an assessment may be needed:

• the individual’s health condition may limit or prevent them from performing the job effectively (e.g. musculoskeletal conditions that limit ability)
• the individual’s condition may be made worse by the job
• the individual’s condition may make certain jobs and work environments unsafe to them personally (e.g. liability to sudden unconsciousness in a hazardous situation, risk of damage to the remaining eye in an individual with monocular vision)
• the individual’s condition may make it unsafe both for themselves and for others in some roles
• the individual’s condition may pose a risk to the community (e.g. infection transmitted by a food handler)