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You’re a manager in a small company, and one of your employees posts a prayer request on his Facebook status: His grandfather is suffering from prostate cancer.

In an effort to be a dutiful prayer warrior and a sympathetic boss, you forward the request to your e-mail prayer list.

In doing so, you’ve broken the law, said Matthew Davidson, a Johnson City, Tenn., lawyer who specializes in labor and employment law, during a presentation Wednesday about GINA, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act.

Coordinated by Davidson’s firm, Baker Donelson, and the Wise County Chamber of Commerce, the presentation was attended mostly by human resources professionals seeking guidance on handling the new law in the workplace.

GINA, which took effect in November, is the nation’s newest anti-discrimination law and still has regulations to be quantified and cases to be litigated before its meaning is fully understood, Davidson said.

What is clear, he said, is that the law is very broad, and even inadvertent disclosure of genetic information by an employer is a crime.

“Genetic information” includes such things as the illnesses of fourth-degree relatives, such as great-great-grandparents or cousins once removed, he said.

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Written By Debra McCown | Reporter / Bristol Herald Courier

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