Electronic Surveillance of Employees

Assignment #1 – Electronic Surveillance of Employees 2

Explain where an employee can reasonably expect to have privacy in the workplace.

Privacy is a cherished value for most of us, and state legislators know it. Most states have passed at least some privacy-related laws. Many of these laws are intended to protect consumers by, for example, limiting the ways companies may use personal information or requiring businesses to maintain the confidentiality of medical information or Social Security numbers.

Some states have also passed laws that deal with workplace privacy, including the use of cameras and video equipment. In California, for example, it's a crime to install a surveillance mirror (one that can be seen through from only one side and looks like a mirror on the other) in a restroom, shower, fitting room, or locker room. In Connecticut, employers may not operate surveillance equipment in areas designed for employee rest or comfort, such as restrooms, locker rooms, or employee lounges (ACLU, 1997).

An employee is subjected to being under surveillance at all times while in the workplace. Employee can expect limited privacy when perhaps they go on break away from the work center, while using the restroom, in the locker rooms, or during their lunch break. The employee has privacy rights in the workplace in most states pertaining to the employee’s personal belongings including briefcases or handbags, telephone conversations and voice mail, personally addressed e-mail, personal storage lockers, personally addressed mail. However, employees should reasonably expect that they are being monitor while on company time or whenever they enter a company’s facility. Employer can get away with denying workplace privacy, partly because 1) employers own the phone on which their employees talk, the computer on which they work and the building in which they roam; 2) employers have a legitimate interest in monitoring work to...