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Three Yale University employees have filed a class action lawsuit challenging the university’s practice of charging employees $1,300 per year for not participating in a wellness program.
The Yale wellness class action lawsuit was filed by Christine Turecek, a cook; Lisa Kwesell, a part-time service assistant; and Jason Shwartz, a locksmith. All three plaintiffs are members of a union.
They claim that as part of their wellness program for employees, Yale requires employees to divulge medical information and submit to medical examinations and testing, or forfeit $25 per week to keep this information private and not undergo testing.
The three workers note that their Yale wellness program class action lawsuit comes on the heels of a lawsuit filed by AARP and the AARP Foundation, in conjunction with other attorneys, who filed a lawsuit that successfully challenged the policy that allows companies to charge employees for not disclosing their health information, which was allowed under the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
According to the Yale employees, “it’s a suit to enforce what the law is now after the 2016 regulations were struck down.”
The Yale wellness program class action lawsuit says that Yale’s policy of fining workers who do not participate in a wellness program violates the Americans With Disabilities Act and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act.
The wellness program fine class action lawsuit asserts that Yale violates these laws by requiring workers to “either divulge protected information (including prior insurance claims data) and submit to invasive medical examinations and testing, or forfeit a substantial portion of their salary to keep their personal medical and genetic information private.”
AARP Foundation president Lisa Marsh Ryerson argues that, “Allowing employers to financially coerce workers into relinquishing their personal health information is a clear violation of medical privacy and civil rights protections.”
The Yale class action lawsuit asserts that many Yale workers feel that they are being forced to participate in the program. One employee reportedly said that he would rather not participate but “can’t throw away $25 [per week] to keep [his] information private.”
The Yale employees note that around 5,000 employees are affected by Yale’s policy. They go on to say that charging employees for not participating is not a compelling way to increase a wellness program’s effectiveness, according to growing research.
The Yale wellness class action lawsuit goes on to say that despite the ineffectiveness of the fines, Yale’s wellness program is an “unusually punitive program,” because of the high fines charged to nonparticipants.
The Yale class action lawsuit goes on to say that to charge employees a fine for not participating in a wellness program effectively slashes wages — the workers note that the fines that Kwesell has to pay represent about a five percent pay cut to her salary.
The Yale employees are represented Joshua R. Goodbaum, Joseph D. Garrison and Elisabeth J. Lee of Garrison Levin-Epstein Fitzgerald & Pirrotti PC and Dara S. Smith, Elizabeth Aniskevich and Daniel B. Kohrman of AARP Foundation Litigation.
The Yale University Wellness Program Fines Class Action Lawsuit is Lisa Kwesell, et al. v. Yale University, Case No. 3:19-cv-1098, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut.
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