Employee Privacy and Video Surveillance

Paper Summary:

Should an employer be allowed to conduct video surveillance of its employees in the workplace? This paper examines the view of employees who feel that such surveillance violates their right to privacy. It also looks at the argument presented by employers, who say that employees have no right to privacy in the employer?s workplace, and the employer?s need to prevent misconduct and maximize productivity outweigh the privacy interests of employees. This paper examines this question, focusing on the current state of the law (both federal and state) and the continuing political and moral debate among labor and business groups.

From the Paper:

"Employers utilize video surveillance for a variety of reasons. Situations that require scrutiny include suspicion of drug use, conducting personal business on company time, revealing trade secrets, surfing the Internet, and harassment issues (sexual and otherwise). For example, an employer could institute surveillance to ensure against a "hostile workplace," one of the causes of action under a sexual harassment suit. Similarly, surveillance could be used to ferret out instances of racial discrimination committed by employees but actionable against the employer. Employers in heavily regulated industries, such as nuclear power plants, also utilize videotaping to demonstrate compliance to federal authorities (Hymowitz 1)."

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