Labor & Employment Alerts

President Bush signs Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act

President Bush signed HR 493—the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008—on May 21, 2008. The law will bar employers from refusing to hire, discharging, or in any way discriminating against applicants and employees because of genetic information. "Genetic information" means an applicant's or employee's genetic tests or genetic tests of their family members, or the manifestation of a disease or disorder in family members. Employers will also be prohibited from requesting, requiring, or purchasing genetic information about an employee or family member (there are certain exceptions like when complying with FMLA certification rules or voluntary participation by an employee in an employer's wellness program that includes a genetic testing component). The law will also require employers to keep genetic information about an employee or employee's family member in separate medical files and treated as a confidential medical record.

This new federal law will become effective on November 21, 2009. In California, employers already are barred from doing genetic testing on employees and applicants and from discriminating based on genetic characteristics, but as the effective date of the new law approaches, employers should review their nondiscrimination policies nationwide and make sure that bias on the basis of genetic information is covered.