Employers potentially violate Protected Actions in ADA Lawsuit
The Americans with Disabilities Act was established in 1990 in order to combat discriminatory practices based on disabilities and mainly requires businesses, public facilities, and even websites to provide accommodations to individuals with disabilities. And while the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) was primarily enacted to ban discrimination of disabilities in public spaces, it has also become a influential in discriminatory work place practices.
A recent lawsuit against a marketing company, Quad/Graphics Inc., and its subsidiary, Rise Interactive Media & Analytics LLC, alleged that the company had unfairly increased the medical insurance premium for employees who opted out of a biometric screening as part of its newly introduced wellness program. Though employees were allowed to Opt-Out of the biometric screening, choosing to decline the screening resulted in an increased premium to those employees’ health plans.
The ADA prohibits any mandatory screenings and exams unless they are voluntary or related to the specific position requesting the screening. Quad/Graphics maintained that the biometric screening was in fact voluntary because it did not require employees to take the screening, and when questioned why employees were met with an insurance premium hike when they declined the screening, Quad indicated that the premium cost they saw was actually the original cost of the insurance policy further explaining that it, in fact, rewarded those workers who chose to complete the screening with a policy premium incentive. Employees who declined the screening, however, noted that the cost of their insurance premium increased by approximately $1,800 from former plans, with some feeling penalized for not taking the biometric exam and others feeling coerced into completing it.
A judge found that the ADA’s definition of voluntary is not explicit in this regard, but referred to case’s pertaining to similar issues and how those cases defined “voluntary” and applied it to the case against Quad. Though the ADA does not strictly define “voluntary” in the context of employer benefits programs, employees who are discriminated against for choosing to Opt-Out of an allegedly voluntary program or exam and are met with penalty should be protected under the ADA.
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