Alaska Employment Law

At her presentation before the Employment Law Section on Wednesday the 6th, Barbara Jones made the following points on the employment provisions (Title II) of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (effective November 21, 2009):

1) Neither post-offer nor fitness-for-duty questionnaires may request genetic information (unless the employer uses such information solely for Workers Comp purposes).

2) Because Alaska is not one of the 25 or so states that has a mini-GINA, the EEOC filing limit for Alaska employees at covered employers is 180 rather than 300 days.

3) Tribes, and perhaps ANCSA corporations, are exempt from GINA coverage.   

4)  GINA is a stand-alone statute that adopts some Title VII or ADA provisions.  Thus, it is not an amendment to either statute so as to be applicable to smaller Alaskan employers under 6 AAC 30.910(b).

5) Covered employers must update their EEO posters with the one available at the EEOC website. 

6)  A covered employer may not disclose an employee’s own genetic information to the employee without a written request.  The request need not specifically mentioned genetic information. 

The draft federal regulations are here.