Julli Markgraf 
The statutory German ‘Right to Question’ in a Job Interview – an adoptable Model for Australia? 

Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject Law – Civil / Private / Industrial / Labour, grade: D – good, Bond University Australia (Law School), course: Labour Law, language: English, abstract: In the past three decades a rapid growth of internationalisation and
globalisation has taken place in the business world. This development
has had a significant effect on the labour market. Nowadays,
recruitment, application and selection of personnel takes place in a
global market. Consequently, Human Resources Management requires
a cross-cultural assessment for hiring international employees. This
also includes the different legal systems, which provide diverse rights
and duties. Furthermore, human capital is regarded as a sensitive
topic. Here, the gap between cost-consciousness and efficiency of
conducting business might stand against the protective and supportive
rights of the employee. Therefore, the selection of personnel plays a
crucial role because employees can not be easily dismissed.
One of the elementary steps within the application process is the job
interview. At this stage, the employer aims to get a holistic image of
his future employee by asking questions. However, not all questions
have to be answered by the applicant truthfully. Thus, the future
employer might be not able to gain a realistic picture of the candidate.
Some legal systems, such as under the German law, provide the
candidate with an implied “right to lie” which has no effect on the legal
validity of a contract. Basically, three different question types exist: 1.
questions with a duty of disclosure, 2. lawful questions and 3. unlawful
questions.
This paper is primarily designed as a tool for applicants and Human
Resources Managers from Germany and Australia, to familiarise them
with the particular rights, duties and consequences of the “right to
question” in a job interview, with a focus on the German legal system.
In the first section , the paper focuses on the general topic of personnel
selection with a particular focus on the recruitment process and the role of the job interview as a part of this procedure. The statutory
German “right to question”1 in a job interview will also be illustrated in
the first section. The adaptability of the German model to the
Australian legal system will then be examined; the outcome of which
form the substantive conclusions provided in the final section.