Employee Privacy Rights in the Workplace

8/2/2019 Employee Privacy Rights in the Workplace

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Employee Privacy Rights In The Workplace:Protecting Information

Employee Rights violated in the workplace have caused major lawsuits in the state of Texas.Many employees information is not safeguarded; a lot of information is open to the public.

There are a lot of web sites where anyone can access and get information some of these sitesare: www.anywho.com, www.zabasearch.com, and www.accurateinformationsystem.com.These are some of the sites that are open to the public. Anyone can go onto these sites to yourpersonal information. Although the sites are very useful for job employment it should belimited to who can access this information.

For a little money, say $25, one can obtain someone's Social Security number, previousaddresses and possibly their driving record. "Most people don't realize how muchinformation about them is out there," says Deirdra Mulligan, staffs counsel at the Center forDemocracy and Technology. This statement is very true; some can provide detailed financialhistories, including information about bank accounts and credit card balances and loans. Thisinformation needs to be safeguarded from the public, it is important to have this usefulinformation for a job but, What about when in it not involving your employment?Technology has advanced from the 1980's and even 1990's it is scary knowing that it is nothard for hackers and stalkers to get information.

There are also a few ways to prevent this information from getting out by following some of the suggested steps:1. Filling out surveys2. Credit checks (applying for credit cards)3. Registering with a club4. Locking your work cabinets when leaving the area5. Locking your computer when not working

All of these suggested steps are very useful. One of the laws that are important in thehealthcare workplace is HIPAA (Heath Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996). This law to was invented to improve portability and continuity of health insurancecoverage in the group and individual markets, to combat waste, fraud, and abuse in healthinsurance and health care delivery, to promote the use of medical savings accounts, toimprove access to long-term care services and coverage, to simplify the administration of health insurance, and for other purposes. Patients realized that they need to know that theyare protected under healthcare. Although we have this law it is still not protected among the

employees in the workplace. Majority of the employees in the workplace tend to translate alot of other employees information through word of mouth. Disciplinary action should begiven when spreading information about another employee. Some people you may work withmay have Aids, Cancer, Leukemia, and other diseases. This should be confidential due toother employees' conditions. That will make an employee feel uncomfortable in theworkplace. Something that should be placed on the application among being hired is to havea box to check that disclosing any personal information about another employee should leadto some kind of disciplinary action. This will let people being hired know that this issomething that is being taken seriously and can cause their job.

Equal Opportunities within the Workplace

When starting a job, training is usually one of the courses that are given. Personal or


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classroom training should be given on every job and should not be something that is rushed.Employees in the workplace do not qualify for certain jobs due to the lack of training, thiscause for the employee not to have advancement in the workplace. When hiring someonethey should have the equal opportunity to be trained, to understand the job a lot of companieslook past the college education when having the trained skills and also even when you do

have the education you still may not be hired if you do not have the experience. But if youcan not get the proper training, it is sometimes hard to get ahead. Some people do not catchon as fast as others, everyone is not hands on. Training will provide the opportunity to learnthe job, and prevent mistakes. Verses to when you learn hands on, you make mistakes tolearn the job. This can cost the company to have the mistakes corrected.

Training is also something that should be given periodically, (refresher courses). This willhelp employees to be refreshed on what they have learned in the beginning and to make surethat every one is on the right page. When learning, it is important that everyone understandsthe same way. You do not want everyone to have different understandings. It also does notset a good example for the company.

Advancements within the company not made available are a big concern in the workplace.Employees want to be able to succeed and advance within his/her current position. In somecases certain employees are denied the advancement due to gender, age or race. EEOC (EqualEmployment Opportunity Commission) was established in 1964 Civil Rights Act, researchedfrom (CQ researcher, Public Affairs Collection). In researching this law enforcesemployment should not be discriminated from race, sex, national origin, and religion. Theemployee should have the equal opportunity to interview for the job regardless.

Employee Evaluation into Pay Raises

Employees should be offered raises when meeting goals upon the evaluation. All employeesdo not put in as much effort as others, but still get paid the same. This discourages theemployees that put in the majority of the effort. Pay raises should be given to acknowledgethe appreciation of their work. Raises should also be based off of cost of living in theeconomy; employees should be given fair raises a $.05 cents raise will not make a differencein employee pay check $.50 or $1.00 will. But it should also be evaluated by the amount of work you have accomplished, everyone should not be the same because every do not retrievethe same amount of work, and do as hard as others.In order to make sure that this policy is followed there should be a union in every company toback this up. Union requirements are to make sure that whatever the company agrees upon

with the employees is met. The union is to also fight for the employees when treated unfairly,this will help also to save the employees job. The Union usually has meetings to let the unionemployees know what is going on. It is important to know when a job brings in the union. Itis not required for the employee to be apart of the union. Some employees feel that they donot need someone's help to fight the law, because the union will represent you. It should bea fee that is taken out of your pay check for the union representing you, which usually is.Know that the union will make sure that you know all of your rights.

Employers say the changes in traditional pension plans, health insurance and other non-salary"extras" are necessitated by broad shifts in work patterns and demographics, while criticscharge they are discriminating against older workers and retirees. (CQ Researcher, Employee

Benefits, by Mary H. Cooper) The union will let you know what is going on within yourcompany to stop the discriminating against older workers and retirees as well. They are just


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as beneficial to the company as well as any other employee.

Employees Expressing Their Concern

Even though employees should be flexible with change, they still should be able to express

their concerns when changing. Upper management feels sometimes when employees expresstheir concerns that they are not being flexible. They look at it as complaining. The employeewants to be heard as well. A lot of times suggestions that are made make a difference. Whenyou are managing it is easy to see what is better for the employee to do, but when you do notdo the same work the employee do, it is best to hear their concerns involving change.

One on one conversation is good for upper management to have with the employee to knowhow the employee feels towards the concerns of the job, it also covers privacy. Someemployees do not feel comfortable expressing their issues in groups.

In all, these issues are the main ones addressed in today's workplace and are a big concern foremployees. The issues being resolved can increase the encouragement in employees.

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Employee Privacy Rights in the Workplace