Checking up on workers - business and employee privacy

Nation's Business, Dec, 1990 by Jane Easter Bahls

* Restrict in-house access to employee records to people with a legitimate need to know. "If people request information about an employee, only provide those parts of the record they need," says employment-law attorney Decker. For example, a supervisor considering an employee for promotion doesn't need the individual's medical records.

* Discard outdated information. Decker recommends having the personnel office periodically check employment records and destroy information that is no longer relevant, even if there's no collective-bargaining agreement that requires purging of records. For example, consider discarding negative drug-test results, because the mere fact that an employee was tested can damage that worker's reputation.

* Check with your lawyer before administering polygraph tests (now generally barred by federal law), honesty tests, personality tests, and similar data-collection techniques.

* Avoid intrusive data collection. If you're concerned about an employee's possible alcohol or drug use, look for evidence on the job such as a drop in performance or frequent absenteeism. Select the least intrusive alternative to meet your goals, and follow clear company policies. (Of course, if the job is such that even minor impairment would pose a danger to the public, intrusive data-gathering measures may be necessary and defensible.)

Although there is no guarantee that even the most prudent data-gathering procedures will always insulate a company against a privacy lawsuit by an employee, faithful adherence to such procedures can at least buttress the company's defense.

"The cases where an employee wins usually involve extreme conduct on the part of the employer," says Perritt. "Employers need not worry if they treat their employees with dignity in a systematic way."

PHOTO : Nabors Alaska Drilling's winning defense in a privacy suit by a former employee over drug testing cost $100,000 in legal fees, says President James C. Taylor.

PHOTO : Be careful in employee-privacy matters, says lawyer Kurt Decker, an author on the subject.

Jane Easter Bahls is a frequent contributor on business and legal topics for Nation's Business and several other national magazines.