GINA

GENETIC INFORMATION NONDISCRIMINATION ACT

 Congress passed and President Bush signed into law the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act on May 21, 2008.  The law became effective on November 21, 2009.  What this law does is prohibit employers from discriminating against employees and applicants based on the results of genetic testing they have had done or based on other genetic information about the employee or the employees family member.  Although only recently passed, this law has already been the subject of several lawsuits.  In one such lawsuit, an employee who had genetic testing which determined that she was prone to breast cancer, told her supervisor that she had decided to have a voluntary double mastectomy based on this testing.  Although allegedly she had been a stellar employee with excellent job reviews for years, once she provided this information to her employer she began having frequent disciplinary warnings and was ultimately terminated.  She sued claiming that the alleged poor performance was a pretext and the real reason she was terminated was because of the results of her genetic testing.  This case is still pending but it will be interesting to see what the results are.

STEPS TO TAKE TO ENSURE COMPLIANCE WITH THE GENETIC INFORMATION NONDISCRIMINATION ACT

·        Amend your policies to prohibit discrimination based on an employees and the employees familys genetic information

·        Train your managers on that policy

·        Consult legal counsel prior to imposing discipline including termination on employees who have disclosed the results of their genetic testing or information regarding their genetic makeup or familyhistory