Employee Privacy Workplace

Employee Privacy Rights in the Workplace

The issue of privacy is a big concern in the workplace. With the expanding of new technology, many employees are concerned that their privacy rights are not being protected. Laws that allow employees to monitor employees, many feel are a violation of their privacy rights and are felt to be unconstitutional. Employees have the right to got to work knowing that his or her employer will not invade their privacy. They have the right to go to work knowing that there will not be someone over their shoulder watching their every move. The rights to privacy in the workplace only offers limited protection for workers against monitoring and breach of confidentiality. Many feel that there should be clearly
defined laws to guarantee protection against invasion of privacy. The protection offered by the Electronic Communication Privacy Act of 1986 has been reduced due to the statue being outdated. Rights that employees once had protected are most likely not protected anymore. Are there any limits to employers snooping or intruding in to personal properties or behaviors of their employees? The growth of new technology brings about new problems concerning workplace privacy rights.
There have been numerous software programs introduced after 1980 giving employers the ability to monitor employees. Other advances in technology give employers the ability to "watch" employees every move. Employee monitoring, the largest issue among workplace privacy rights, is a growing concern and will only become bigger with new advances in technology. Electronic monitoring has seen a tremendous growth in the workplace in the past ten years. The National Workrights Institute states, " Prior to 1980, electronic monitoring was virtually unknown. Electronic monitoring was introduced into the workplace in the twentieth century for the use of bathroom breaks and hand eye movements." It is shown that eighty-eight percent of all electronic monitoring systems were installed after 1980. A survey of 300 businesses in different industries was conducted and found that at least twenty million Americans may be subject to electronic monitoring at the workplace. No matter what industry you work in- you are more than likely being observed. The Workplace Monitoring Survey of 2001 showed that more than three-quarters of all U.S. firms are monitoring employees. Most companies are recording or reviewing email messages, telephone calls, internet connection, and computer files of
employees. Technology allows corporations to access information about workers. Some of the information may be construed by some to constitute infringements on the individual right to privacy of workers. Moral and ethical approaches have been implicated for the access and use of worker information. Some of the information gathered by these companies may not affect the employer and employee relationship, and can be seen to be a violation of the employees privacy rights. It seems as though ethical debates about the electronic tracking of employees in the workplace fall into two categories. The workers argue that this is an invasion of privacy that denigrates human respect and dignity. Then there are the employers who will not budge from their stance on their ‘need to know' for the purposes involving liability and managerial responsibility. The expectations for personal privacy may be lowered as a result of technological fact-finding. There may be resistance to information intrusion as compared with the current belief systems. Some feel that it would be likely that the legislature would add additional legal protection for the privacy rights of individuals based on new social norms.