Employee Rights in the Workplace Essay Example

GPS tracking devices to monitor employees.Some companies purchase these devices to show safe driving habits to insurance companies and to have service calls adequately covered by technicians. (Siegel, 2004).

Electronic eavesdropping is used when an employer wants to listen to voice mail recordings, read emails that were sent and received, and also listen to cell phone conversations. Researchers are testing biometric identifiers in hopes of improving security and preventing fraud (Graham-Rowe, 2005). Perfecting the biometric identifiers system will allow people to carry their digital identities with them wherever they go.Legal Aspects of Monitoring Many employees feel that they have a right to privacy in the workplace. There are several laws that deal with employees’ and employers’ rights in relation to privacy and employee monitoring.

“The Federal Criminal Codes (18 U. S. C. §2510, and §2511) specifically discuss interception of wire, electronic, and oral communications”. (Firoz, Taghi & Souckova, 2006, ¶26) The Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VII, speaks about lawsuits regarding employment and discrimination. (¶27) The Fourth Amendment; however, does not guarantee a right of privacy; it protects U. S. itizens against unreasonable search and seizure, but does not protect private employers. (¶28) The 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) says “that it is a federal crime for an individual to willfully intercept, access, disclose or use another’s wire, oral, or electronic communication”. (¶29).

This act does not ‘apply’ to employees in a private business because “email in a private sector does not affect interstate commerce” (¶29). “The Notice of Electronic Monitoring Act is proposed legislation dealing with how often employers must inform employees about electronic monitoring” (¶31).The Importance of Employee Monitoring Even though employees might interpret

employee monitoring as an invasion of privacy and a lack of trust from their employer, the employer does the monitoring to protect the employees' systems and business interests. Employers monitor employees for a variety of reasons.

One reason for monitoring is to check how many keystrokes per hour an employee performs, informing the employer if he or she is below or above the expected number of keystrokes required for data entry. ¶6) A second reason would be to track the amount of time an employee spends away from the computer or how long the employees’ computer is idle. (¶6). If we, as employees put ourselves in the employer’s shoes, we would want to know if our employees were being productive for the job that they were hired to do.

If someone were to perform a search on the Internet for employee monitoring tools, he or she would find that the market is flooded with these types of tools. In 1993, there were an estimated 27 million worldwide employees being monitoring in the workplace and that number is still growing (¶8).Advantages and Disadvantages of Monitoring Some of the advantages of employee monitoring are that email use can be limited, viruses can be prevented from corrupting company computer systems, inappropriate acts and uses of language can be intercepted before any harm is done, and companies can stop leaks of proprietary information. Some of the disadvantages of employee monitoring are, as stated earlier, an employees’ feeling of lack of trust, a feeling of no privacy at work, and the possibility of employers being sued by employees for fear that their privacy has been violated.One type of violation that can occur

happened to a Massachusetts college secretary while she was changing clothes in a place she thought was safe. (Kitchen, 2006). She felt violated because her boss never informed her that she was being videotaped. Connecticut and Delaware are the only two states that require employers to inform employees that they are being monitored. (2006).

In a case like this, not only is legality an issue but morality is as well. Although not all monitoring in the workplace is bad, we must take steps to ensure our legal rights also.Just as an employer does research on an employee, employees need to do research on the employer as well. Too much information is not the trouble-causing factor; it is the lack of information. Pre-employment Monitoring A couple of pre-employment activities that come to mind are a background check and a drug test.

To most responsible adults this screening process is acceptable, but to other adults this is a violation of their privacy. This screening process is done for the safety of the company and its employees. Privacy Away From the WorkplaceYears ago celebrities were the ones complaining about not having privacy, but now they are not the only ones complaining (Hawkins & Mannix, 2000). The public is now complaining about their privacy at home. The most notorious complaint from the public is with the telemarketing companies. Keeping personal information private is getting harder for people to keep track of whom has been privy to their personal information due to the selling of businesses and company mergers (? 14).

A great deal of Internet companies track the Internet history of most computer users (? 16).Employers have been known to spy on

employees’ private life and the most common reason occurs when an employee gets hurt on-the-job and the injury prevents the employee from doing his or her job. When an employee spies on an employee due to an injury at work and the employee is caught doing physical activities that the employer feels he or she should not be participating in, how can the employer be so sure that what they are witnessing by spying is not a form of physical therapy prescribed by the employees’ doctor? The author has been a victim to privacy away from the workplace.She worked for a large corporation where she took care of employees’ communication devices. This responsibility included going out of state to another facility location.

Going to the other location meant being gone for one week. She never thought twice about being gone, she just wanted to get her job finished so she could come back home. Halfway through the week she received a phone call from her boss asking if things had been going smoothly and what progress she was making. He then asked if she was at a point where she could stop and return home. She finished her job and started the drive back home that evening.

As she was driving home, all she could think about was why she had to stop in the middle of the job she was sent there to accomplish. The next morning she had a meeting with her boss. He proceeded to tell her they needed to meet with the human resources manager. There she found out she was being dismissed for the company’s reason of job performance.

She was extremely devastated.

She met with her now former boss and he had informed her that he had defended her and his boss said that if he did not terminate her employment then he would be terminated as well.The actual reason her employment had been terminated was because they were accusing her of having an affair with another manager. The company had no proof of the alleged affair, but because her reason of termination was due to the so-called poor job performance and being a salaried employee, she had no legal leg to stand on. Just about every decision we make has an advantage and a disadvantage. The advantage in monitoring employees at the workplace would be to prevent an employee from stealing from the company and criminal activity prevention.

The disadvantage to monitoring employees at the workplace occurs when the employer attempts to overstep boundaries by monitoring an employee in the dressing rooms, restrooms, and branching out of the workplace to monitor an employees’ life. Safely assuming the employer would not want his or her private life away from the workplace monitored, it should only be fair practice the employer show the same courtesy to the employee by maintaining his or her privacy.

References

1. Firoz, N. M., Taghi, R. , & Souckova, J. (2006, March).E-Mails in the workplace: The electronic equivalent of ‘DNA’ evidence. The Journal of American Academy of Business, Cambridge, 8(2), 71-78.
2. Frankel, M. (1996, May 20). Candid camera. New Republic, 214(21), 11-12. Retrieved May 25, 2006, from EBSCOhost database.
3. Freedman, D. H. (2006, May). New software makes it possible to monitor employees and clients. It’s not as creepy as it sounds. Inc. , 28(5), 73-74. Retrieved
   

May 25, 2006, from EBSCOhost database.