As an employee, you have specific rights of privacy at the workplace in accordance to the federal law of the state of California. You may think that an employer monitoring your emails and phone calls is a violation to your privacy rights. However, monitoring employees and their emails is allowed under the law. Employers have the legal right monitor all their employees’ phone calls and personal emails. An email is an electronic document that can be presented as evidence in lawsuits and government agency investigations, so it’s very important for any company to keep track of all information circulating through its network.

The main reason for employers to monitor employee communication at the workplace is to avoid legal liability and keep track on each employee’s performance and behavior. In order to protect themselves from possible legal issues, employers need to know how their employees are spending their time online. How else could an employer know if employees are wasting time on social media, online shopping, or worse- distributing illegal or pornographic content which could put the company in legal problems? This is why courts in the state of California tend to side with the employer in this type of lawsuits.

Some companies have email policies for their employees in terms of privacy, allowing the company to access personal emails if necessary. Employees must be aware of this policies and sign their conformity with them. If a company doesn’t have an email policy, it’s a good idea for an employee to get informed on how the company deals with privacy and monitoring; some companies allow employees to have a private mail account, however, this does not guarantee you can file a lawsuit against your company if they access your email account. Legally, the company has the right to access private email messages if they have a valid reason.

Almost anything you can do on a computer can be monitored. Companies have the right to navigate through personal emails if there is a compelling reason to do so. Software can be installed to monitor employee’s workplace activities, enabling employers to see what is on the screen, hard disk, and computer terminals of the workstation. Internet usage and emails can also be monitored. The number of keystrokes on a keyboard and how much time is spent away from the workstation can be monitored as well. Employers have the right to record and listen to your phone calls as work, although there are some legal limits. Policies on mobile phone privacy may vary between companies.

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The widespread use of social networking has caused concern among employers about the information that may be on a potential employee’s or an employee’s social networking site. An employer may want to see a social media site to get information about a job applicant or an employee that may not available by any other means. Likewise, an employee’s use of the company computer can also be a cause for concern, and some employers have faced serious legal problems arising from an employee’s misuse of the company computer. Both of these issues will be discussed below from the employee’s perspective.

Can Potential Employers Use Information From Social Media In The Hiring Process?

The short answer is no! California law is very specific on this point. The law explicitly forbids an employer from asking a potential employee about whether they have a social media account, and if they do, the employer cannot ask to see their social media account or ask for access to it. The law also covers pictures, profiles, blogs, and emails.

However, the issue is much like a double-edged sword for a potential employee. While the law expressly prohibits an employer from using the potential employee’s refusal as a reason to deny employment, it is unlikely that the person would know that their refusal was the reason. So, the logical question is how can a potential employee deal with this issue.? The answer is to set up a separate social networking account that has no content that might be objectionable. If this plan is not an option, then the potential employee can perhaps justify the risk in refusing access.

This question should be carried further to involve existing employees. The law prohibits the employer from asking existing employees for access to their social media account unless access is pertinent to an investigation of possible employee misconduct or employee violations of laws and regulations. The law requires that access is used for the investigation only.

Can My Employer Legally Monitor My Computer and Internet Activities?

Yes, they can. Decisive appellate court decisions have come down protecting an employer from an employee’s illegal or otherwise harmful use of the employer’s computers. The courts have also recognized an employer’s right to monitor the use of its computers to determine efficiency and bandwidth usage. The employer has a right to monitor emails sent from its computers, but it cannot monitor incoming emails. However, the employer can access private emails that an employee stored on a company server.

More employers than we realize monitor the computers used by employees. The best practice for employees to follow is to use their company computer for business purposes only.

If you, or someone you know, are facing legal issues in the workplace United Employees Law Group has answers, Call Today for your free and confidential case review. Please feel free to CONTACT US with any questions about this blog or your exact situation.

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