In 2009, the employment provisions of the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act went into effect. At the time, GINA was regarded as providing important workplace protections because it prohibits employers from discriminating against employees and job applicants because of genetic conditions. Nevertheless, many people believed that these rules would not come into play for many years. Just last week, however, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced that it had settled its first GINA related complaint.

The case involved a woman who received a conditional job offer from a company called Fabricut. The company’s offer required the prospective employee to pass both a drug test and a physical. At the physical exam, the woman was asked to provide a detailed family medical history. In many ways, the requested history was quite typical: it asked about diseases such as diabetes and cancer, as well as mental disorders.

As the EEOC pointed out, however, the problem was that the family medical history questionnaire had been requested by a potential employer. In all likelihood, had Fabricut asked the applicant to submit to an exam without the medical history questionnaire, it would not have run afoul of GINA. Under the law, an employer has no right to request this sort of genetic information.

Although this marks the first EEOC suit under GINA, more cases are likely to follow. In fact, the EEOC also announced that it has filed its first GINA related class action suit, which also involves pre-employment medical exams and family medical history questionnaires.

Source: AOL Jobs, “Pre-Employment Medical Exams: A New, Scary Kind of Discrimination,” Donna Ballman, June 11, 2013