Employee Privacy Rights

Most workers are unaware that their privacy rights extend to the workplace where they are frequently violated by executives, security personnel, private investigators and informers. The law allows employees to recover damages when companies act improperly. In one case, a court of appeals upheld a $350,000 jury award to a man who had been fired for insubordination after his employer discovered that he had surreptitiously tape-recorded a meeting during which he was demoted.

Workplace policies that attempt to monitor or regulate employees' habits and activities are increasingly subject to legal challenges. Legislatures and courts have demonstrated a growing desire to review and strike down policies that are directed at non-work-related employee behavior. On the other hand, employers successfully can defend many intrusive policies when they are linked sufficiently to legitimate workplace goals.

This chapter discusses recent developments with respect to employee privacy rights, including lie detector tests, drug, alcohol and AIDS testing, smoking in the workplace, employee searches, interro- gations, wiretapping, eavesdropping and other forms of surveillance; rights of free speech, appearance rules, breaches of the confidentiality of employee records and related problems dealing with the disclosure of personnel files.

A. Lie Detector Tests

B. Personnel Records

C. Off-Duty Surveillance

D. Credit Investigations

E. Medical Investigations

F. Searches

G. Interrogations

H. Wiretapping and Eavesdropping

I. Employee Testing

J. Drug and Alcohol Testing

K. Workplace Smoking

L. Constitutional Protections

M. Defamation and Related Concerns

N. Liability for Assaults