Substitute Senate Bill No. 80
Substitute Senate Bill No. 80
PUBLIC ACT NO. 98-180
AN ACT PROHIBITING THE USE OF GENETIC INFORMATION
IN EMPLOYMENT DECISIONS.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of
Representatives in General Assembly convened:
Subsection (a) of section 46a-60 of the
general statutes is repealed and the following is
substituted in lieu thereof:
(a) It shall be a discriminatory practice in
violation of this section:
(1) For an employer, by himself or his agent,
except in the case of a bona fide occupational
qualification or need, to refuse to hire or employ
or to bar or to discharge from employment any
individual or to discriminate against him in
compensation or in terms, conditions or privileges
of employment because of the individual's race,
color, religious creed, age, sex, marital status,
national origin, ancestry, present or past history
of mental disorder, mental retardation, learning
disability or physical disability, including, but
not limited to, blindness;
(2) For any employment agency, except in the
case of a bona fide occupational qualification or
need, to fail or refuse to classify properly or
refer for employment or otherwise to discriminate
against any individual because of his race, color,
religious creed, age, sex, marital status,
national origin, ancestry, present or past history
of mental disorder, mental retardation, learning
disability or physical disability, including, but
not limited to, blindness;
(3) For a labor organization, because of the
race, color, religious creed, age, sex, marital
status, national origin, ancestry, present or past
history of mental disorder, mental retardation,
learning disability or physical disability,
including, but not limited to, blindness of any
individual to exclude from full membership rights
or to expel from its membership such individual or
to discriminate in any way against any of its
members or against any employer or any individual
employed by an employer, unless such action is
based on a bona fide occupational qualification;
(4) For any person, employer, labor
organization or employment agency to discharge,
expel or otherwise discriminate against any person
because he has opposed any discriminatory
employment practice or because he has filed a
complaint or testified or assisted in any
proceeding under section 46a-82, 46a-83 or 46a-84;
(5) For any person, whether an employer or an
employee or not, to aid, abet, incite, compel or
coerce the doing of any act declared to be a
discriminatory employment practice or to attempt
to do so;
(6) For any person, employer, employment
agency or labor organization, except in the case
of a bona fide occupational qualification or need,
to advertise employment opportunities in such a
manner as to restrict such employment so as to
discriminate against individuals because of their
race, color, religious creed, age, sex, marital
status, national origin, ancestry, present or past
history of mental disorder, mental retardation,
learning disability or physical disability,
including, but not limited to, blindness;
(7) For an employer, by himself or his agent:
(A) To terminate a woman's employment because of
her pregnancy; (B) to refuse to grant to that
employee a reasonable leave of absence for
disability resulting from her pregnancy; (C) to
deny to that employee, who is disabled as a result
of pregnancy, any compensation to which she is
entitled as a result of the accumulation of
disability or leave benefits accrued pursuant to
plans maintained by the employer; (D) to fail or
refuse to reinstate the employee to her original
job or to an equivalent position with equivalent
pay and accumulated seniority, retirement, fringe
benefits and other service credits upon her
signifying her intent to return unless, in the
case of a private employer, the employer's
circumstances have so changed as to make it
impossible or unreasonable to do so; (E) to fail
or refuse to make a reasonable effort to transfer
a pregnant employee to any suitable temporary
position which may be available in any case in
which an employee gives written notice of her
pregnancy to her employer and the employer or
pregnant employee reasonably believes that
continued employment in the position held by the
pregnant employee may cause injury to the employee
or fetus; (F) to fail or refuse to inform the
pregnant employee that a transfer pursuant to
subparagraph (E) of this subdivision may be
appealed under the provisions of this chapter; or
(G) to fail or refuse to inform his employees, by
any reasonable means, that they must give written
notice of their pregnancy in order to be eligible
for transfer to a temporary position;
(8) For an employer, by himself or his agent,
for an employment agency, by itself or its agent,
or for any labor organization, by itself or its
agent, to harass any employee, person seeking
employment or member on the basis of sex. "Sexual
harassment" shall, for the purposes of this
section, be defined as any unwelcome sexual
advances or requests for sexual favors or any
conduct of a sexual nature when (A) submission to
such conduct is made either explicitly or
implicitly a term or condition of an individual's
employment, (B) submission to or rejection of such
conduct by an individual is used as the basis for
employment decisions affecting such individual, or
(C) such conduct has the purpose or effect of
substantially interfering with an individual's
work performance or creating an intimidating,
hostile or offensive working environment;
(9) For an employer, by himself or his agent,
for an employment agency, by itself or its agent,
or for any labor organization, by itself or its
agent, to request or require information from an
employee, person seeking employment or member
relating to the individual's child bearing age or
plans, pregnancy, function of the individual's
reproductive system, use of birth control methods,
or the individual's familial responsibilities,
unless such information is directly related to a
bona fide occupational qualification or need,
provided an employer, through a physician may
request from an employee any such information
which is directly related to workplace exposure to
substances which may cause birth defects or
constitute a hazard to an individual's
reproductive system or to a fetus if the employer
first informs the employee of the hazards involved
in exposure to such substances;
(10) For an employer, by himself or his agent,
after informing an employee, pursuant to
subdivision (9) of this subsection, of a workplace
exposure to substances which may cause birth
defects or constitute a hazard to an employee's
reproductive system or to a fetus, to fail or
refuse, upon the employee's request, to take
reasonable measures to protect the employee from
the exposure or hazard identified, or to fail or
refuse to inform the employee that the measures
taken may be the subject of a complaint filed
under the provisions of this chapter. Nothing in
this subdivision is intended to prohibit an
employer from taking reasonable measures to
protect an employee from exposure to such
substances. For the purpose of this subdivision,
"reasonable measures" shall be those measures
which are consistent with business necessity and
are least disruptive of the terms and conditions
of the employee's employment;
(11) FOR AN EMPLOYER, BY HIMSELF OR HIS AGENT,
FOR AN EMPLOYMENT AGENCY, BY ITSELF OR ITS AGENT,
OR FOR ANY LABOR ORGANIZATION, BY ITSELF OR ITS
AGENT: (A) TO REQUEST OR REQUIRE GENETIC
INFORMATION FROM AN EMPLOYEE, PERSON SEEKING
EMPLOYMENT OR MEMBER, OR (B) TO DISCHARGE, EXPEL
OR OTHERWISE DISCRIMINATE AGAINST ANY PERSON ON
THE BASIS OF GENETIC INFORMATION. FOR THE PURPOSE
OF THIS SUBDIVISION, "GENETIC INFORMATION" MEANS
THE INFORMATION ABOUT GENES, GENE PRODUCTS OR
INHERITED CHARACTERISTICS THAT MAY DERIVE FROM AN
INDIVIDUAL OR A FAMILY MEMBER.
Approved June 4, 1998