Pass table variable to SELECT function

I have a getData() function, and a database with two tables: employers and members. I would like to pass a variable containing the table name, so inside an "if" I could execute the appropriate SELECT statement. My problem I believe that after the "if" the $stmt->bind_param(); doesn't know which $stmt to bind the take. Any ideas on how I could achieve this?

Thanks

public function getData($table)
{
    if ($table == "employers")
    {
    $stmt = $this->link->prepare("SELECT * FROM employers ");
    }
    else
    {
    $stmt = $this->link->prepare("SELECT * FROM members ");
    } 

    $stmt->bind_param();
    if ($stmt->execute())
    {
        $result = $stmt->get_result();
        while($row = $result->fetch_array(MYSQLI_ASSOC))
            { 
            $row = array_map('stripslashes', $row);
            $dataArray[] = $row;
            }
    }

    return $dataArray;      
}