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Workplace Searches and Surveillance |
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Written by Wayne R. Centanni
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 Whether a workplace search is legal or not depends in part on the reasonableness of the employee’s expectation of privacy and the reasonableness of the employer’s surveillance. If you are in doubt about whether you should do a search, consult an attorney.
Office SearchesIf you do conduct a search of employees’ desks, lockers, or other “personal space,” there are a few things that you should do before hand. Issue a broad policy statement clearly saying that you will conduct unannounced and unapparent surveillance or searches. Have all employees acknowledge your policy and acknowledge that they submit to the policy. When you do conduct surveillance or searches, do so for a business purpose.
Workplace SearchesWorkplace surveillance might include the installation of cameras in your office, production facility, or showroom floor. Regardless of what you are monitoring, surveillance should not extend to the restroom or lounge areas of the workplace.
Telephone MonitoringWhere possible, it is best to monitor only those telephone lines that, with the employees’ knowledge, are dedicated exclusively to business use. You should strictly enforce your policies against the use of such business lines for personal calls. Monitoring should stop as soon as any particular call has been identified as personal in nature. In all but the rarest of cases you should not engage in the indiscriminate monitoring of all incoming or outgoing calls on lines used by employees, even if there is reasonable cause to do so.
Electronic Mail MonitoringEmployees have a reasonable expectation of privacy - make sure that your investigative methods don’t violate that. You should issue a policy that establishes a legitimate business interest to monitor e-mail and that decreases any expectation of privacy employees may have in e-mail if you want to monitor it.
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