SoylentNews

Mystery Excreta: Firm to Pay $2.2M Over Forced DNA Testing for Workers

posted by cmn32480 on Saturday June 27 2015, @03:14AM   
from the craptacular dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

A federal jury has concluded that an Atlanta grocery warehousing firm must pay two employees a combined $2.2 million for forcing them to submit to a buccal cheek swab to determine if their DNA was a match to excreta being left throughout the facility.

Employees Jack Lowe and Dennis Reynolds declined a combined $200,000 settlement offer from Atlas Logistics Group Retail Services. Instead, they forged ahead with the first damages trial resulting from 2008 civil rights legislation that generally bars employers from using individuals' "genetic information" when making hiring, firing, job placement, or promotion decisions.

Atlas Logistics claimed the "genetic information" at issue wasn't covered by the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA). 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.

US District Judge Amy Totenberg, however, refused to toss the case, which she described as the search for the "devious defecator" who left "offending fecal matter" across the Atlanta-area warehouse that sorted and delivered products for grocery stores. 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.

---

Original Submission

• I wonder if they appealq I wonder if they appealq (Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Saturday June 27 2015, @03:23AM

  by frojack (1554) on Saturday June 27 2015, @03:23AM (#201973) Journal

  A food warehouse has an obligation for food protection, and could probably be shut down by state authorities for failing to provide a safe environment for work or food storage. I guess they should have called the police, rather than taken it upon themselves to do the testing.

  --
  No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Moderation		+1
  Interesting=1, Total=1
  Extra 'Interesting' Modifier		0
  Karma-Bonus Modifier		+1
  Total Score:		3

• Re:I wonder if they appealq (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 27 2015, @03:46AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 27 2015, @03:46AM (#201979)

  > A food warehouse has an obligation for food protection, and could probably be shut down by state authorities

  That is the "We must do something! This is something, therefore we must do it!" canard.

  This obviously did not work because the only people they tested turned up negative.

  Parent

• Re:I wonder if they appealq (Score: 4, Insightful) by Tork on Saturday June 27 2015, @04:05AM

  by Tork (3914) on Saturday June 27 2015, @04:05AM (#201984)

  Obligations like that don't give you any sort of rationale to violate peoples' rights. They'll likely appeal, but it won't be for that reason.

  --
  🏳️‍🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️‍🌈

  Parent