AFFIRMATIVE — EMPLOYMENT — WORKPLACE SPYING — INHERENCY 284

CURRENT LAWS ARE INADEQUATE

FEDERAL AND STATE LAWS PROTECTING WORKPLACE PRIVACY ARE NARROW AND NOT COMPREHENSIVE

Rod Dixon, an attorney at the U.S. Department of Education, "With Nowhere to Hide: Workers are Scrambling for Privacy in the Digital Age," Journal of Technology Law and Policy, Spring 1999, 4 J. Tech. L. & Pol'y 1, EE2001-JGM, P.48

Although conflicts over workplace privacy are increasing, legal analysis of the issue remains fragmented. A number of federal and state statutes regulate aspects of employee privacy, but each addresses only a particular, narrowly defined invasion. For example, separate federal statutes regulate the use of polygraph testing, credit reports, and medical examinations by employers. Similarly, over half the states have statutes regulating the use of polygraphs in employment; at least fourteen limit employer drug testing plans; and nearly two dozen forbid adverse employment actions based on off-duty tobacco use. No statute, however, deals with the issue of employee privacy in any comprehensive way. n132

EMPLOYERS CAN DO WHATEVER THEY WANT WITH WORKER PRIVACY

MARLA DICKERSON, TIMES STAFF WRITER, Los Angeles Times, June 7, 1999, SECTION: Business; Part C2; TITLE: CAREERS / TRUST YOUR BOSS // acs-VT2001

"There's almost nothing an employer can't do, and there's not much employers aren't doing," said Lewis Maltby, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's national task force on civil liberties in the workplace. "You may live in America. But it's not the same America when you go to work."

Technological progress has only hastened the trend. Experts estimate that at least 26 million Americans are electronically monitored every workday. All the gee-whiz technology that has made American workers poster children for productivity can also function as an electronic tether. In this digital age, your boss may know how fast you type, what Web sites you visit, with whom you're exchanging electronic messages and more.

PRIVATE COMPANIES ARE NOT BOUND BY LIMITS ON SEARCHES AND SEIZURES

MARLA DICKERSON, TIMES STAFF WRITER, Los Angeles Times, June 7, 1999, SECTION: Business; Part C2; TITLE: CAREERS / TRUST YOUR BOSS // acs-VT2001

The U.S. Constitution protects citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures and other invasive activities by government. Private-sector companies aren't bound by the same restrictions.

WORKERS ARE NOT PROTECTED AGAINST DISCRIMINATION BASED ON THEIR ACTIVITIES OFF THE JOB

Margaret Graham Tebo, ABA Journal, March, 2000 TITLE: No Peeking: Efforts to restrict monitoring of workers' outside activities gain favor // acs-VT2001

As the 21st century gets under way, some efforts are being made to protect employees from discrimination based on their off-the-job activities and lifestyles. So far, however, those efforts have produced a patchwork of laws that have not significantly interfered with efforts by companies to find out all they can about the people who work for them.

NO FEDERAL OR STATE LAWS PROTCT PRIVACY IN THE WORKPLACE

EVE TAHMINCIOGLU, St. Petersburg Times, February 01, 1999, SECTION: BUSINESS; COVER STORY; Pg. 11 TITLE: BUSINESS TOOL OR BIG BROTHER? // acs-EE2001

Federal and state laws dance around the issue, said William S. Hubbartt, a human resources consultant from St. Charles, Ill., and the author of The New Battle Over Workplace Privacy.

"There is no overriding federal law and no single state law that focuses on privacy in the workplace," Hubbartt said.

CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS DO NOT EXIST WHEN IT COMES TO YOUR EMPLOYER

Greg Dawson; The San Diego Union-Tribune, March 27, 2000, SECTION: BUSINESS;Pg. C-1 TITLE: Freedom of speech shares workplace with the freedom to be fired; it's a ... Constitutional Catch-22 // acs-VT2001

In the real workplace -- the one occupied by 99 percent of us -- anyone who embarrassed his company would soon be looking for a different company to embarrass. The First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech, not freedom from consequences.

"This is something critical about our Constitution that very few people understand," says Lewis Maltby, director of the American Civil Liberty Union's workplace division. "The Constitution and Bill of Rights only protect us against the government. They do not protect us against employers.