When it comes to email privacy, most courts in the US are going to side with the employer – not you.

Technology makes it possible for any business across the board to keep track of and read all workplace communications if you are connected to their network or use their equipment. For example; they would be able to read all communications from your computer, that includes emails and messages you receive on your desktop. They shouldn’t, however, be able to read items on your phone because you are on not on their network unless you are using their wi-fi!

If you doubt that your employer would be reading your emails, think again! According to a survey done in 2007 by the American Management Association, around 43% of companies DO monitor employee emails and around 28% of them have fired an employee due to the misuse of email! That was in 2007, imagine how far this number has jumped in the past 12 years and how much more skilled technology has become.

Work Email Accounts Are Not Private

If you have an email account with the employer you work for it’s pretty safe to assume that your email is not private. Your employer is completely allowed to and able to monitor your incoming and outgoing emails.

Reading Personal Emails On Company Equipment

If you have a job that provides equipment such as; a computer, a phone, a tablet, do not read your personal emails on them! This is just asking for trouble. If you absolutely need to check your personal email, do it on your own time and your own technology.

How Are Emails Monitored?

If your emails are being monitored, chances are they are going through one of these processes. It should be noted that while your employer might not be reading your messages right then and there, they could be “storing” them to read them later on or even use software to look for certain keywords that you have included in your emails.

1- KeyLogger Programs: These programs are pretty common these days, but you don’t just have to worry about it reading sent or received emails – but drafts too!

2- Some employers will create a copy of all messages when they arrive via email.

3- There are email systems that will copy all of the messages that run through them, automatically.

If you do get caught or your employer says something to you about it, it’s really in your best interest to just admit it rather than be caught in a lie IF they are monitoring your communications!

How To Stay In Check!

If you’re wondering how you can stay out of trouble at work, the solution is really simple.

– Keep work at work. You shouldn’t be emailing your wife about dinner, messaging your ex, talking to your friends or whatever else. You should only be sending work emails through your email address.

– Don’t access your personal email address, for example at Gmail, on work technology ie; your computer.

– Don’t forget your manners. Make sure that when you send out emails to your co-workers, even if they are friends, that you aren’t sending out anything that can be misunderstood or misconstrued.

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Lactation Breaks under Federal Law

Under the federal Affordable Care Act, the federal laws were amended to allow mothers access lactation breaks. The law also touched on the wage and hours of work. The laws require employers to offer the mothers reasonable unpaid breaks for them to express milk for their babies. It also requires the companies to provide the lactation mothers a private room apart from bathrooms where they can enjoy privacy and express milk for their babies for up to one year after giving birth. The California law on the lactation mother is very broad. It covers different sections.

Lactation Breaks under California Law

In 1998, the legislators in California passed laws requiring all employers to provide private spaces where mothers can express milk for their mothers. In 2002, the state enacted labor code which made it mandatory for all employers to provide lactation rooms and offer employees enough time to express milk for their mothers.

Covered Employers

Unlike laws such as accommodation for disabled which cover employees over a certain number, the lactation accommodation law covers employees of all types. Even if you have few employees, the law requires you to provide them with the lactation rooms and the necessary breaks for them to breastfeed after giving birth.

Breast Feeding Versus Expressing Breast Milk

The law requires all employers in California to provide rooms where mothers can express milk. The law does not require all employers to provide private breastfeeding rooms at work, but, if an employer chooses to provide breastfeeding places at work, the employer should provide a private place for the mothers to breastfeed their babies.

Amount of Break Time

The law requires the employer to offer reasonable time. They can provide the breaks along regular breaks at work and other additional unpaid breaks. There is no limit on the period a mother can ask for the break.

Location

The employer should provide a private room near the work space for the employee.

Employer Exception

If the breaks cause reasonable disruption, the business can be exempted from the breaks.

Penalties for Failure to Accommodate

The state labor commissioner can penalize uncooperative employer $100 per break denied.

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Medical Privacy Laws in the Workplace

Medical records related to a person’s medical history are made when a person receives treatment from a health professional. The same documents can cover medical history, lifestyle choices like smoking or participating in high-risk activities, and family medical history. It is not rare that these include lab tests, prescribed medications and results of a medical procedure that the was received.

Medical privacy represents implications related to privacy for any employee, if there is a chance the employer is accessing this information for some reason. If this does occur, the law in the US state of California is triggered and there are key points of how this takes place.

When Can an Employer See My Medical Information?

The law in California allows the employer to access medical information about their employee, but it must be related to a legitimate business reason. The information can be volunteered, like in the case of sick leave, or it can be requested for things like forms used for workers compensation claims.

In any case, the information can be attained by the employer, but it both must be related to the business and has to be kept private inside of the organization.

Americans with Disabilities Act states that employers cannot ask for medical tests as a basis of getting a job, meaning that tests cannot be asked for as a requirement for employment. Additionally, the same act forbids anyone from demanding their employees to take a medical test as a way of avoiding them from losing their job.

What Is HIPAA?

The federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) represents a standard that is valid nationwide and which regulates the problem of privacy of health information. In other words, it shows the employers how medical records are disclosed and used.

It states that employers must give notice when dealing with written privacy procedures, restrict the use of this information inside of their organization and finally, it asks for the appointment of a dedicated privacy officer and the training of their staff on this issue.

With this information, anyone will be a lot more suited to understand any relevant issue related to medical privacy in the workplace and will allow them to better prepare themselves and protect their personal information in the same working environment.

A business that wants to collect medical information from individuals for direct marketing purposes must first get written consent and must clearly disclose how the information will be used.

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An employer can regulate employees’ behavior at work but may have limited say regarding employees’ off-duty conduct. Today, employers use advanced technology to monitor employees while off-duty. Although the employer may want to know what his or her employees are doing during their own time, there are laws that prevent employers from intruding to employees’ off-duty activities. For instance; in the state of California, an employer cannot take any job-related action against an employee when off-duty. This protects the workers’ off-duty conduct privacy rights. On the other hand, an employee may have questions regarding their off-duty conduct hence; it’s advisable to seek for legal assistance from United Employee Law group.

Employee’s off-duty privacy laws

There are limits for an employer to intrude some of the employee physical areas when off-duty. However; if an employee is doing some activities that are against the law and can affect the employer’s reputation, the employer reserves the right to fire or discipline him or her. Let’s look at some areas where employee off-duty conduct privacy rights are protected.

Marital status

Employers have no right to monitor if a worker is single, divorced or married unless they want the information to include the worker in health insurance plan. In fact, it’s against the law for an employer to discriminate employees based on their marital status. An employee should check if the state they are working with protects employees against discrimination on marital issues.

Union activities

An employer should not monitor any activities that involve the union. Therefore, employees should hold meetings or gatherings without any surveillance. Likewise, the employer should not send someone to eavesdrop on the meeting conversation. This can amount to serious violation of employee rights.

Political and religious beliefs

The state laws protect any employee from being discriminated on the basis of political and religious affiliations. In fact, an employer should not at any one time try to convert a worker to his or her political and religious beliefs.

Drugs

The employer reserves the right to identify if the employee is using drugs when off-duty. Today, employers have an obligation to ensure they provide a safe and healthy working environment. If the employer is suspicious that you may be engaging in drugs when off-duty, he or she has the right to intrude your privacy and take the right disciplinary action against you. However, this should be done professionally since some employees could be using drugs like marijuana for medical purposes.

Majority of employers may monitor employees when off-duty. However, most companies will state before hiring if they have such a system in place. If you have any questions regarding your off-duty conduct privacy rights, you should get in touch with United Employee Law group for further assistance.

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An employee has fewer privacy rights in the workplace than they do in their personal life. For this reason, the employees should be cognizant of what information they display when it comes to the use of computers at work. Nowadays, bringing the computer into play has turned out to be a way of doing business each day. Consequently, various questions have emerged as to the legal rights of the workforce to using their work computers for personal reasons.

Notably, technology has permitted organizations to keep an eye on various aspects of their worker’s activities in the workplace. Nevertheless, although the staff may perceive that such monitoring is a breach of their personal life, this form of surveillance is permitted under the law. Arguably, the employees are motivated to do so over litigation and the enhanced role that electronic evidence plays in investigations by government agencies and lawsuits. Accordingly, an employee can be subject to punishment, or dismissed if they violate the policies of an organization concerning personal computer usage.

The use of Internet at Work

Recognizably, employers can trail the internet usage of the workers, in regards to the website visited, the time they spend online, and their engagement in other activities online such as using the social media. In similar fashion, an organization may prohibit the staff from using the workplace computers for their individual activities or deny them access to certain websites and the internet altogether. To that end, there is no noticeable right to privacy allegations against a company for restricting or monitoring the employees’ internet usage.

It can be reasoned that the law grants the employers the prudence to dictate the policies for the personal usage of workplace computers so as to ensure their security. Notably, if the staff are downloading programs and information on the internet, the workplace computers may become vulnerable to various technological problems and virus. The security may also be regarding the workers violating the confidentiality rules of their enterprise. Another reason is that an organization owns the data transmitted to and from the computers since they own the computers.

Email and Privacy 

If an organization uses an email system, then it is the property of the employer, and they are allowed to review its contents. For this reason, the email messages do not have a theme to any law regarding personal privacy. Therefore, a company is free to read and monitor the messages of their staff, with no restriction. The rationale behind this is that the employers are ensuring that the employees are not disclosing confidential information, and they are productive. Additionally, they also do so to decrease the possibility of any wrongdoing or misconduct by the employees. Hence, a company is well within its rights to monitor the emails of the staff.

Written Work Policies 

In like manner, nowadays, organizations employ written policies concerning personal computer usage. They do so to place the workers on notice of their stance on the use of the workplace computers for individual functions. Importantly, the policies are meant to support the corporations when they choose to punish or even dismiss a staff member as a consequence of using the workplace computers inappropriately.

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What Internet privacy rights do employees have? Can an employer legally monitor an employee’s internet activity during on-duty hours? Yes, generally, employers have the right to monitor their employees’ use of the Internet on computers owned by the employer, during employees’ on-duty hours. Employers concerned about lost productivity, viral invasions, dissemination of proprietary information and their liability for sexual and other forms of harassment, believe that monitoring is an important deterrent to inappropriate Internet and computer usage. Employers can monitor an employee’s internet use, software downloads, documents stored on their computer, emails, social networking sites, instant messaging, etc.

According to the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), an employer-provided computer system is the property of the employer. Therefore, employers that provide you with a computer system and Internet access are free to monitor almost everything that you do with the computer and Internet access with which you have been provided. This is especially true when an employer gives you a written policy regarding the monitoring of your computer use. Courts have generally agreed that an employee does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy when using a device owned and issued by the employer. However, some union contracts or state laws (such as those in California), may limit an employer’s ability to monitor your computer activity. With that being said, employers concerned about their liability or loss of productivity caused by an employee’s Internet surfing during work hours, can legally fire an employee for his or her Internet use.

As it is highly possible that your online activity is being monitored, be sure you know what your employer’s monitoring policy is before engaging in activity during work time that is not work-related. You should not visit any websites that you would not want your employer to see or that your co-workers might find offensive. While most employers do not mind if your personal internet use is occasional and doesn’t interfere with your work, some employers do mind, and expect you to confine your personal Internet usage to non-work hours.

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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Most if not all employers run criminal record checks on job applicants, and on employees who are being considered for promotion to jobs with a higher level of responsibility. This article will discuss what a criminal record is and how criminal records can be used in employment decisions. Federal and state laws restrict how employers can use criminal records in making hiring and promotion decisions, and California provides more legal protections for job seekers than most states do.

What Is A Criminal Record?

A criminal record is a record of a conviction of violating a law that makes an act a crime – either a misdemeanor or a felony. Traffic citations are not considered to be a criminal record, but a DUI might be. However, if a traffic incident resulted in a trial and a conviction, then this might become a criminal record.

When Are Criminal Records Used?

While the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) prohibits any non-job-related questions about applicants or employees, it is not too much of a stretch for an employer to make the argument that criminal records relate to an applicant’s or an employee’s suitability for the job. Thus, while the employer’s right to use criminal records is well settled, it is nonetheless subject to some state and federal qualifications.

Can Employers Use Criminal Records In Hiring Decisions, and What Process Must They Use?

The short answer is yes. However, federal and state laws restrict and place qualifications on the use of criminal records in hiring decisions. The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires that a person give their written consent ahead of time. The employer is required to tell the person if an adverse action could be taken based on the contents of the report. The employer must provide the person with a copy of the report. If the report causes the employer to make an adverse decision, then the person must be told that the decision not to hire or promote is based on the report.

The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has provided some guidance with a more liberal interpretation of the use of criminal records, but this guidance does not have the force and effect of law. Federal courts have considered this guidance in rulings from trial courts.

California law prohibits employers from asking persons about an arrest that did not result in a conviction, and employers cannot ask about a person’s requirement to participate in a pretrial or post-trial diversion program. Employers cannot seek or use arrest records that did not result in a conviction, but they can inquire about arrest records that indicate a person is awaiting trial.

California law also prohibits employers from inquiring about sealed records and records that have been eradicated according to statute or expunged. Some old marijuana offenses are also off the table. Convictions that have been judicially set aside are also prohibited from being used in employment decisions.

Public employers other than law enforcement agencies cannot ask questions about a criminal record on an employment application. The intent is to assess the applicant’s skills and abilities first.

Caveats

The discriminatory use of criminal records to deny African Americans or Latinos employment violates federal and state laws. The use of criminal records to deny an applicant or refuse a promotion should be based on the impact of such a record on employee performance.

Also, the state law prohibits the hiring of people in certain business and service activities if they have a criminal record.

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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