For most California residents, our jobs are a big part of our lives. To secure a paycheck, pay for health insurance, and contribute to a retirement plan, we must turn over a lot of our families’ personal data to our employers. All of that sharing of information can create a lot of worries when we don’t know how well companies are protecting it.
California employee privacy laws are in place to penalize employers when they don’t offer adequate protection for employee information. These laws are also concerned with how much our employers can monitor our computer screens and record us over the course of a work week. They govern how much an employer can pry into our pasts, our medical history, and our criminal records.
When employees feel their employers have violated their rights to privacy, they should feel empowered to report their companies. Employees have a right to keep their lives and their pasts private, and when they have their privacy taken from them, they deserve full compensation.
Contact a California Employee Privacy Laws Lawyer for a Free Consultation
All workers in California have a right to privacy and all should have their private information protected. If you experience a violation of these rights, please speak with a California labor law attorney to find out about the strong legal actions you have available.
The employee privacy law attorneys at Maison Law have extensive knowledge of state and federal employee privacy protections. We take action and help clients file claims against employers to secure substantial compensation after a violation of privacy rights has been committed.
Contact us for a free consultation that comes with no obligation to you. We want to hear what you’ve been put through and then talk over all of your legal options. This free case review is completely confidential.
California Employee Privacy Laws
You may have wondered what rights employers have when it comes to the information they store on you, the information they dig up on you, and how much they monitor you during your workday.
California labor laws limit how far your employer can probe into your personal and work life. They restrict how much companies can delve into your past and how much they can record and track you.
Maison Law helps clients with all manner of Employee Privacy Law violations. Our California Employment and Labor Law Attorneys help clients file labor law claims and in some cases, lawsuits against their employers. We make sure any and all privacy breaches are fixed and we secure as much compensation as possible for what our clients have endured.
These are just some of the violations you may file a claim over:
Computer and Phone Privacy Violations in the Workplace
Some California workers spend all day on a computer. They seek out the information they need to complete job duties and enter in sensitive personal information to sign up for employee benefits. But those employees may also wonder what type of information the computer and their company are storing on them.
California allows companies to monitor some data on the computers and phones they provide to employees. But not all internet access is fair game for their prying eyes.
A company may alert you that your computer use, phone calls, and voicemails may be monitored, but that doesn’t automatically make every intrusion they commit perfectly legal. A skilled California employee privacy law lawyer will hold a company’s actions up to state and federal law and often find violations of your rights as an employee.
California Employee Medical Information Privacy Violations
In most instances, California employers may not investigate the current or past medical state of employees or potential employees. In general, companies can only examine medical data to confirm an employee is well enough for certain required job duties.
These privacy rights are strongly protected and any company violating these laws would face penalties imposed by the state of California. They could also face a lawsuit filed by your California Employee Privacy Lawyer.
In most cases, California employees aren’t required to:
- Reveal the medications they are on.
- Submit to a medical exam.
- Grant access to medical history.
- Disclose medical information.
Background Check Violations Under Labor Laws
Potential employers have the right to do background checks on applicants in most situations. A background check usually exposes information on things like past criminal convictions, educational background, social security numbers, and immigration records.
Background checks may draw information from credit reports and even DMV records.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) mandates that potential employers must have written consent from you to run a background check on you. They must alert you if a background check or employment report has been used against you. You can file a lawsuit against any California company that violates these terms. You can sue a background check company if they’ve made a mistake on your background report.
Drug Test Violations Under California Labor Laws
Under normal circumstances, drug tests can only be required of job applicants seeking employment at a California company. Although, this is only legal if all job applicants are tested, not just a select few.
Employees already working at a company are usually not required to take drug tests. Employees may face drug testing if they are in a position where they are responsible for their own safety or the safety of others. They could also have to submit to a drug test if an employer suspects drug use.
When drug tests have been administered in an illegal context, the test and the test results constitute a violation of California employee privacy laws. A lawsuit is a potential outcome, and the victim could seek damages.
California Lie Detector Test Employee Privacy Violation
A lie detector test is another violation of employee rights. Employers cannot require a polygraph test of an employee unless the employee agrees in writing to be tested.
Federal law allows employers to require a lie detector test in some cases, such as if an employee was suspected of serious workplace theft. However, California’s labor statutes prohibit any request of this nature from a private employer. If your employer asks you to take a polygraph test, it’s a smart idea to speak with a California Employee Privacy Lawyer before agreeing to anything.
Surveillance Video Privacy Violations in a California Workplace
Many California privacy laws are based on the reasonable expectation of privacy. This means that courts will look at whether claimants were in a location where they should have reasonably expected to be monitored or recorded. This can be the difference between being in a work parking lot or being in a bathroom.
These legal concepts also apply to an employer’s right to watch and record surveillance video and audio of employees. Companies can usually get away with rolling security footage in public areas such as a room of office cubicles or a conference room.
Employers face legal issues when they record video in places employees expect to be private such as bathrooms, breastmilk pumping stations, and locker rooms.
California Privacy Laws Regarding Employee Sensitive Data
California employers have a legal obligation to protect the data employees and applicants provide them. This includes the safeguarding of medical and financial information. An employee’s work file and misconduct reports and employee evaluations shouldn’t be accessible to anyone without authorization or anyone outside the company.
A computer breach or the mishandling of your personnel files could lead to major harm to you and your family. Your identity could be stolen, and your credit cards and bank accounts might be used by a cybercriminal. Your personal data could be used illegally by someone in the company to deny you a promotion, a raise, or added benefits.
These are all violations and speaking with a California Labor Law Attorney would help you determine how to go about restoring what you’ve had taken from you. Your legal options may also include securing a share of compensation after your company has paid fines and penalties.
The California Privacy Rights Act in 2023
Stronger measures will be in place to safeguard an employee’s right to privacy in 2023. On January 1, 2023, the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) law, passed in 2020, takes effect. The CPRA goes live in 2023, but its legal protections will apply to data collected in 2022. The law basically expands consumer privacy rights and extends them to the employees of the companies the legislation is meant to govern.
Consumers will be in a stronger position to ask companies to delete their personal information. This power will also be granted to employees who are worried about their employers having so much personal data on them. Bloomberg Law reports that the CPRA won’t apply to some information collected in job application contexts.
The act also creates a California Privacy Protection Agency that will monitor for violations and punish companies that break privacy mandates.
Can My Company Retaliate If I Report an Employee Privacy Violation?
It is illegal for California employers to engage in the wrongful termination of employees because they report or file a claim over employee privacy violations. Companies are also prohibited from retaliating against employees by demoting them, harassing them, reassigning them, and through other unfair treatment.
California’s Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) provides a full account of the many California employee retaliation law on its website. This list of statutes protecting employees is extensive. It doesn’t mean that employers won’t try to engage in retaliatory action, but when they do, employees can file lawsuits and recover substantial awards for what they endure.
Contact a California Employee Privacy Law Lawyer
Maison Law of California offers a free consultation to any workers who feel their privacy rights have been compromised. This case evaluation is completely confidential, and your employer would not know about it.
It’s a no-risk way to find out if you have a strong case against your company. It’s also a good chance to learn what you should demand from an employer in compensation for what they’ve put you through.
Our California labor attorneys have extensive knowledge of state and federal employment privacy laws and we use that knowledge to the benefit of our clients. Don’t endure an unsecured work environment for another minute.
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