Amid a recent deluge of human-rights concerns and big steps for big business, a bill is humbly working its way through Congress that would let employers compel their workers to either provide intimate genetic data or face thousands in penalties.
HR 1313, or the Preserving Employee Wellness Programs Act (PEWPA), could expand companies’ ability to acquire genetic and other health information from employees via their DNA through a loophole in extant privacy law known as the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA). According to PBS, an almost annoyingly smart-and-reliable nonprofit, PEWPA threatens to side-step privacy protections established under GINA and elsewhere by stating specifically that genetic tests required as part of a “workplace wellness” program aren’t entitled to such protections.
