When Employer Rights Clash with Employee Privacy Rights

Why Should You Attend:

When the employer investigates an employee to determine if misconduct has occurred and what action needs to be taken, he/she must be careful not to violate the employee’s privacy rights. Many legal experts believe that lawsuits claiming that employers have violated employee privacy rights will surpass wrongful termination lawsuits in the 21st Century.

How far can an employer/ organization go when conducting investigations to protect its interests without violating an employee’s privacy rights?

This webinar will identify when the law protects an individual’s privacy and how an employer can conduct a lawful investigation without crossing the line of violating their employee’s privacy rights.

Areas Covered in the Seminar:

• What are the four types of privacy rights?
• Under what circumstances can an employer monitor employees' telephone calls, emails, etc.”
• When can drug testing programs violate employees' privacy rights?
• Under what circumstances can an employer search employees' desks, offices, briefcases, automobiles, etc.”
• Under what circumstances can you discipline an employee for off duty conduct that might embarrass your company?
• Can the employer require employees to provide passwords to social media sites?
• Can the employer terminate an employee for something written on a social media site that is only open to ‘friends” and the employer is not identified as a “friend”?
• Recommended policies to avoid privacy claims.
• Enforcing policies to make them effective.

Who Will Benefit:

• Senior management
• Employment managers
• Risk managers
• HR professionals
• Line managers
• Investigative officers
• Executive team

Instructor Profile:

Susan Fahey Desmond, is a partner in the New Orleans office of Jackson Lewis, a national labor and employment law firm with offices in 48 cities across the country. She has been representing management in all areas of labor and employment law for over 25 years. She is listed in Best Lawyers in America for labor and employment law and has been named by U.S. Chambers as one of America’s leading business lawyers.

Topic Background:

Most Americans clearly feel that they have a right of privacy outside of work and don’t necessarily feel that they completely lose that right of privacy while at work. Most employers feel they have enough to do at work without worrying about what employees are doing off the clock. But work and privacy life do not necessarily start and end with the time clock. Employees steal from their employers, use drugs at work, fight at work, and engage in other misconduct. Some employees also file fraudulent claims against their employers – claims of illness and seeking FMLA leave or workers’ compensation claims. Employees may engage in other misconduct off the clock that bleeds over into the workplace.

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