Privacy and the Workplace

• Author: Theodore B. Pedeliski,Don A. Cozzetto
• Published date: 01 April 1996
• Date: 01 April 1996
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0734371X9601600203
• Subject Matter: Articles

21

Future

Implications

for

Managers

Privacy

and

the

Workplace

DON

A.

COZZETTO

AND

THEODORE

B.

PEDELISKI

Advances

in

technology

raise

new

privacy

issues

in

the

area

of public personnel.

This

article

examines

the

implications

for

public

managers

of

technological

surveillance

and

genetic

testing

in

public

organizations.

The

basic

principles

from

statutory

and

case

law

are

presented

as

a

guide

for

practitioners.

The

article

concludes

with

a

framework

for

protecting

the

privacy

rights

of

employees.

ourth

amendment

privacy

rights

represent

one

of

the

most

interest-

JL

ing

and

sometimes

controversial

areas

of

public

personnel

administration.

At

issue

is

how

the

employer’s

right

to

assign

work

and

establish

workplace

stan-

dards

is

balanced

against

the

employee’s

privacy

rights.

Historically,

privacy

and

public

employment

involved

five

major

areas-recruitment

and

promotion,

life

style,

personal

habits,

workplace

searches,

and

drug

testing.

These

core

privacy

is-

sues

have

received

considerable

attention

in

the

academic

literature

over

the

past

several

years,

and

they

are

certainly

well

understood

by

personnel

managers

at

all

levels

of

government.

Technological

sur-

veillance

of

the

workplace

and

genetic

testing,

however,

are

two

emerging

com-

ponents

of

workplace

privacy

that

have

received

little

attention

but

will

undoubt-

edly

have

a

significant

impact

on

public

personnel

management.

Moreover,

be-

cause

of

the

rapidly

changing

nature

of

these

two

issues,

there

is

a

paucity

of

case

law

to

guide

public

managers.

This

article

attempts

to

help

fill

the

void

by

providing

an

overview

of

some

of

the

legal

and

constitutional

doctrines

governing

privacy

and

public

employ-

ment

in

the

areas

of

technological

surveil-

lance

and

genetic

testing,

and

concludes

with

a

discussion

of

the

practical

consid-

erations

and

applications

for

public

sec-

tor

managers.

The

courts

have,

for

the

most

part,

permitted

incursions

into

the

4th

Amend-

ment

rights

of

public

employees

if

the

in-

trusions

pass

a

three-pronged

test;

they

must

be

reasonable,

the

employer

must

have

a

compelling

interest

in

conducting

them,

and

the

incursions

must

be

job-re-

lated

(Griggs

v.

Duke

Power,

1971;

Kelly

v.

Johnson,

1976;

Padula

v.

Webster,

1987;

O’Conner

v.

Ortega, 1987 ;

National

Treasury

Union

v.

Railway

Labor

Executives,

1989).

The

reasonableness

threshold

is

attained

by

balancing

the

nature

and

means

of

the

intrusion

against

a

reasonable

expectation

of

privacy

on

the

part

of

the

employee

(O’Conner

v.

Ortega,1987).

Two

important

foundations

of

a

reasonableness

policy

in-

clude

prior

notice

through

the

publication

of

a

surveillance

or

genetic

testing

policy