How can employers protect themselves from litigation over employee privacy rights?
The touchstone in analyzing this type of litigation is whether an employee had a reasonable expectation of privacy in his or her use of the company’s technology. Therefore, employers should strive to appropriately limit or reduce the employee’s expectation of privacy without significantly and negatively impacting employee morale. This can be done with a detailed and clearly written electronic communications policy. Such a policy not only should explain what systems are available, but also should spell out the employee’s obligations and put employees on notice that, among other things, the company equipment, including telephones, computers and electronic systems, is designed primarily for business use only; and the company has the right to access and monitor those systems, including the e-mail system. Also, do not communicate to employees that the systems are strictly for business usage, because the National Labor Relations Act protects certain communications between employees that may
