Railroad to Pay $2.2 Million in DNA Test Case

10 May 2002

A U.S. Railroad corporation has agreed to pay $2.2 million to settle charges of illegally testing workers for genetic defects in the government's first case against workplace DNA discrimination.

While Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., one of the country's biggest railroads, denies it violated the law, the case was a milestone in the brave new world of medical privacy battles and DNA-based job discrimination.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) had charged Burlington Northern with genetically testing or seeking to test 36 employees - mostly track workers who said they had job-related carpal tunnel syndrome - without their knowledge as part of a comprehensive diagnostic exam.

The EEOC also charged that employees who refused to take the test faced possible discipline.

The commission said the tests violated the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), by subjecting the unknowing employees to DNA analyses of whether they were genetically predisposed to carpal tunnel syndrome, a painful hand and wrist condition often caused by repetitive motion.

"While the EEOC did not find that (Burlington Northern) had used genetic tests to screen out employees, employers should be aware of the EEOC's position that the mere gathering of an employee's DNA may constitute a violation of the ADA," EEOC Commissioner Paul Steven Miller said in a statement.

Burlington Northern, which has 39,000 employees, had said it started the genetic testing in March 2000 when it gave medical examinations to workers who filed claims of work-related carpal tunnel syndrome.

The company, one of the few U.S. employers to admit to using genetic tests, voluntarily suspended its program in February 2001, a few days after the EEOC sought a court order against the company. In an interim settlement with the EEOC last April, the company agreed not to resume the testing.

The $2.2 million is expected to be paid within 90 days and will be split among the 36 workers according to how much of the testing process they endured.

Source: Reuters, Washington, May 8, 2002