The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed suit on behalf of a Minneapolis man who says his employer asked him to disclose all of his private medical information as part of his office job and then fired him when he refused to hand it over.
Minneapolis-based Cummins Power Generation, which makes generators and related back-up power products, is accused of violating federal law in requiring the man to “sign a release for all his medical records” as part of a “fitness for duty test,” according to the complaint, filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota.
Cummins did not respond to a request for comment.
The company, which designs and manufactures power generation equipment, also asked the employee to take fill out a diagnostic assessment form with his family’s medical history and asked for information about psychiatric, chemical dependency, suicide, among other medical issues, the complaint states.
The EEOC said in its complaint that the information was unnecessary for the job functions required of an office job.
The American Disabilities Act gives employees the right to be free from medical inquiries that are not job-related and consistent with business necessity. The EEOC is requesting that a judge demand that the company end such practices and compensate the employee for his lost wages and other damages.
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