A New Haven attorney and Yale University graduate has teamed up with the AARP Foundation in filing a federal prospective class action against his alma mater alleging the school's wellness program is discriminatory,

The lawsuit, spearheaded by Joshua Goodbaum and several attorneys with the litigation team at the AARP Foundation, contends Yale's wellness program, Health Expectations, requires about 5,400 current union employees and their spouses to submit to medical tests and allow release of their insurance claims data to multiple wellness vendors. Employees who refuse to disclose private medical and genetic information must pay a fine of $1,300 a year.

Numerous union employees are quoted in the lawsuit, saying the fine is unfair, and plaintiffs claim the policy violates the American with Disabilities Act and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act.

Goodbaum, an attorney with the New Haven-based Garrison, Levin-Epstein, Fitzgerald & Pirrotti, said employees are entitled to compensation.

“We believe this program is illegal, but no court has yet said that,” Goodbaum told the Connecticut Law Tribune on Wednesday. “The main remedy we are seeking is an end to the program; to have a program that is voluntary; and compensatory and non-compensatory damages.”

As of Wednesday afternoon, Yale had not assigned an attorney to the case. Karen Peart, Yale's director of external communications, did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

A Harvard Law School graduate who clerked for then-Tenth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Justice Neil Gorsuch in 2009-10, Goodbaum joined Garrison Levin-Epstein in 2011. He has interned at Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders in Boston and worked for the San Francisco District Attorney's Office and the U.S. Department of Justice. He received his undergraduate degree in history from Yale, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa.

Goodbaum, 36. said he holds Yale in high esteem, adding, “I am tremendously grateful for my time at Yale and the opportunity a Yale education has given me.”

Goodbaum added that it is important to hold institutions like Yale accountable.

“I think caring about an institution means holding it to account,” Goodbaum said. “There has to be someone who is standing up when there is injustice or unfairness and when workers rights are being violated. It's a tremendous privilege to represent employees and to stand up for them.”

In a statement William Rivera, senior vice president of litigation at AARP Foundation, said disclosing personal medical information to workplace wellness programs must be voluntary, according to U.S. law. “Workers should have the freedom to choose whether to divulge personal health information in the workplace, as Congress intended,” he said.

The lawsuit, which seeks class certification, covers all current employees and former employees who have been union members since Jan. 1, 2017.