What Employers Need to Know About the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act and the EEOC's New Implementing Regulations

New regulations published by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, effective January 8, 2011, confirm that employers will need to make fundamental changes in long-standing practices to avoid violating the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act of 2008 (GINA). In addition to prohibiting the use of genetic information in employment decisions, GINA bars employers from acquiring or disclosing such information except in limited circumstances. As reflected in the new regulations, these prohibitions will have a broad impact on the workplace because "genetic information" includes not only the results of an employee’s own genetic tests, but also any diagnosed or diagnosable illness — whether hereditary or not — of an employee’s family member going back four generations.

This program will highlight the most pressing compliance issues for employers in light of the EEOC’s new regulations and provide practical recommendations for handling those issues.

Some of the key topics to be addressed include:

• Requests to health care providers for employee health information
• Conversations between managers and subordinates about family illness
• Social networking relationships between managers and employees
• Handling medical information submitted in support of a leave request
• Responding to subpoenas and discovery requests calling for employee health information
• Offering employees financial inducements to complete a health risk assessment that requests family medical history
• Protecting employee health information in corporate transactions

This program will be presented by attorneys from the Cleveland office of Littler Mendelson.

Registration and Breakfast: 7:30 a.m. – 8:00 a.m.
Program: 8:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.

There is no charge for this program.

This course has been approved by the Supreme Court of Ohio on Continuing Legal Education for 2.0 total CLE hours instruction.

Questions? Please contact Beth Riebe at briebe@littler.com or 216.623.6147.