Employees' Right To Privacy

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how three basic issues must be addressed when looking at the ethical background of employee privacy rights. First, one must look at the arguments regarding the employers right to know and to use that knowledge. Secondly, one must investigate the claims of an employee's right to remain private. Finally, one must determine whose ethical responsibility it is to see that each of these competing rights are preserved as much as possible.

From the Paper:

"The question of an employee's right to privacy poses a particularly difficult ethical dilemma. On the one hand, the employer has an ethical obligation to the worker, to honor their privacy and their general human dignity and rights. On the other hand, the employer has an ethical obligation to the rest of his employees, to his customers, and to his shareholders, and possibly even to society at large to maintain certain standards within the workplace. The employer may also have an ethical obligation to obey relevant state or federal laws. In many ways, these laws can be used as a measure of the accepted ethics of a given situation. However, there are likely many cases where they are insufficient. It is difficult for the law to predict every situation that will arise, particularly in such a personal area as a right to privacy. Additionally, it is possible that the laws themselves are not entirely ethical."

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