Privacy Issues in the Workplace

 Legal snapshot: Personal and Off-Duty Conduct

 Constitutional Right of Privacy, Cal. Const. art. I, § 1  First and Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution

 Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

 Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), Cal. Gov. Code § 12900 et seq.  Public Safety Officers’ Procedural Bill of Rights Act, Cal. Gov. Code §§ 3300 et seq.  Firefighters Procedural Bill of Rights Act, Cal. Gov. Code §§ 3250 et seq .

Applicable laws:

 Various other federal and California statutes



Common law torts



Applicants and employees

Who and what is protected?



Personal workplace relationships

 Personal activities and off-duty conduct

 Base hiring and promotional decisions on personal relationship unless it would pose an unreasonable workplace conflict or hazard  Base employment decisions upon employees’ personal conduct unless there is a sufficient nexus to the employee’s position

Generally, employers must NOT:

 Employee’s right of privacy in personal

The balancing test for this is:

relationships and activities versus employer’s legitimate workplace interests of productivity and safety

A. W ORKPLACE R ELATIONSHIPS

1. M ARITAL S TATUS AND A NTI -N EPOTISM P OLICIES Federal and state equal employment opportunity laws, as well as the state Constitution, generally prohibit employers from making employment decisions based upon an employee’s marital status. However, anti-nepotism policies are permissible under narrow circumstances, when the marital status creates an unreasonable workplace conflict or hazard, and when the policies are narrowly tailored to respond only to the conflict or hazard. 509

Privacy Issues in the Workplace ©2019 (s) Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 153