Who was the "devious defecator" leaving their "offending fecal matter" across an Atlanta-area warehouse that stored and delivered products for grocery stores?
That's how US District Judge Amy Totenberg described the issue as she ruled in favor of two employees who were forced to give a buccal cheek swab to determine if their DNA was a match. But a match was not to be had. The two sued, claiming that the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) prohibited their 2012 tests by a forensics lab hired by their employer, Atlas Logistics Group Retail Services.
Ahead of trial, Judge Totenberg set aside Atlas Logistics' claims that the "genetic information" at issue wasn't covered by the law. Atlas Logistics asserted that GINA excludes analyses of DNA, RNA, chromosomes, proteins, or metabolites if such analyses do not reveal an individual's propensity for disease. The judge ruled that the "plain meaning of the statute's text" is satisfactory for the case to go forward despite the tests at issue not revealing disease propensities.
The two plaintiffs were singled out [for testing] because their work schedules coincided with the timing and location of what the court termed the "defecation episodes."
The company has offered a combined $200,000 to the two employees without admitting wrongdoing. The two employees have vowed to push for more.
takyon: Judge Amy Totenberg is the sister of NPR correspondent Nina Totenberg. The Washington Post has more details about the case and GINA.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday June 06 2015, @06:02PM
Since this is a place where food is stored, I would hope that leaving "offending fecal matter" would be illegal.
I have to ask if there was any OTHER kind of fecal matter than offending.....
But more to the point, deliberate food contamination would be a crime, but log laying some place in a walk way or office would not necessarily be an
attempt to contaminate the food.
One would think you could get pretty close to a genetic profile just analyzing the poop itself. Race, gender, ethnic group should be discernible, as well as dietary clues.
You would think they could have Horatio Cane just run it through the Log Database [cdn.meme.am]. Yeeaaaaahhhhh!
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.