AARP has sued the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to invalidate provisions of new federal wellness rules that allow employers to penalize workers for keeping health information private. The suit-seeking a preliminary injunction against the rules-was filed October 24 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Earlier this year, the EEOC reversed its long-standing policy protecting individual employees from being pressured into revealing confidential medical and genetic information to their employers. Over the protests of AARP and a broad range of other organizations, the EEOC issued regulations that make employees vulnerable to discrimination.
“Contrary to statutory law, the rules effectively enable employers to make employees ‘offers they can’t refuse’,” said William Alvarado Rivera, senior vice president for litigation at AARP Foundation, which represents AARP in the federal suit. “These rules are likely to have an immediate, negative impact on workers who will have to face a lose-lose choice between sacrificing their civil rights and suffering financial hardship,” said Rivera.
AARP alleges that workers exercising their rights to keep their medical and genetic data private could face penalties that double or triple their health insurance costs. Among other things, the lawsuit argues that the EEOC failed to explain and justify its abrupt policy reversal and that the new rules are contrary to federal laws that protect personal health information.
Two major federal laws-the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA)-generally forbid employers to ask employees about personal and family health information. This sensitive information can range from physical health issues such as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease to mental disabilities such as depression and bipolar disorder. The ADA and GINA permit narrow exceptions to the nondisclosure rule for voluntary wellness programs, but those exceptions only apply when the workers genuinely volunteer their information.
The EEOC’s rules “seriously undermine” the critical protections insured under the two laws, according to the AARP suit.
AARP has vigorously opposed the EEOC’s efforts to change the rules, first by filing comments earlier this year with the EEOC when the agency proposed the rules and then by speaking out against the infringement of workers’ rights.
“These rules veer from the EEOC’s important role of protecting against discrimination,” Rivera said. “AARP believes strongly that these rules violate the law, harm workers’ privacy rights, and must be changed.”
This article was adapted from information provided by AARP.