EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION: Connecticut Woman Files Genetic Discrimination Complaint against Former Company

April 28, 2010

Hartford, CT – A 39-year-old Connecticut woman has filed a genetic discrimination complaint before the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) against her company when her job was allegedly eliminated after they found out that she carried a gene that makes her susceptible to breast cancer.

According to Pamela Fink, who worked as the Public Relations Director for natural gas and electric supplier MXenergy, she and her two sisters had undergone a genetic test in 2004 and they found out that all of them carried the hereditary BRCA2 gene, which makes them predisposed for breast cancer.

Both her sisters developed breast cancer but they fortunately survived after some treatment.

Fink had undergone a double mastectomy last year after some biopsies and some scary false alarms.

Feeling comfortable with the great working environment in MXenergy after getting great reviews, increases and bonuses while working there, she told her bosses about the genetic tests and the surgery.

However, she claims that the company hired a consultant to do her job while she was recovering and that person became her supervisor when she returned to work.

She claims that the company took her office and majority of her duties soon after.

Fink claims that only her job was eliminated from her department and it happened six weeks after she returned to work from her second surgery.

According to her lawyer Gary Phelan, part of what Fink is trying to accomplish is to send a message to all employers that they cannot use an employee’s genetic history against them so that they would not avoid the benefits of genetic testing.

Fink’s case is one of the first genetic discrimination complaint received by the EEOC based on the federal Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act or GINA, which took effect just last November 2009.

A spokesman from MXenergy “emphatically and categorically” denies the allegations but would not comment further due to a company policy that bars them from discussing personnel matters.