When Does Investigation Go Beyond Individual`s Privacy Rights In An Organization?

Privacy in the workplace is one of the most burning and charged issues nowadays and it 's widely discussed internationally . It 's necessary to begin the exploration of the of privacy in the workplace with stating that privacy as the basic and fundamental human right is of particular importance for the Americans the right to privacy has always been central to our major liberties and freedoms

It 's alarming and dangerous that the right to privacy is gradually shrinking , even in the democratic countries . The Information Age initiated a paradigm shift in

the sphere of privacy the contemporary meaning of this concept is much wider and more complicated . The existence of computer data banks makes it easier to store large amounts of personal information about the employees

Companies ' position concerning privacy right issues almost in every case clashes with the interests of the employees who want to protect their personal information . An astonishing number of privacy-related lawsuits has been d in recent years

One of the most controversial issues related to workplace privacy is associated with background checks . Virtually every company conducts a certain form of verification of potential employees ' past records Background checks are often initiated to avoid further allegation or reputation threats . Sometimes this background checks are needed , for instance , to ascertain the veracity of the CV of the potential worker - a large number of CVs contain falsified information

In fact , there are certain aspects that can be lawfully included in a background check , namely driving records , Social Security number bankruptcy records , property ownership , past employments , vehicle registration , education records , military records , personal references credit records , criminal records , medical records , drug test records and sex offender records (Nadell , 2004

In the vast majority of cases , background checks are conducted within the framework of existed laws and are justified by the objective necessity to know truthful information about potential workers . However there are cases when employers cross the line and try to collect confidential information about their employers . In fact , nowadays there exists a conflict of the individual liberties against the needs of the organization , because more employees ' privacy would limit corporate liability . Ellen Alderman and Caroline Kennedy state that employer v employee conflict is redoubled by the increase of the health security costs and higher liability for the workers ' deeds

`Health insurance costs have been eating into corporate profits at an exponential rate . Insuring high-risk workers , like smokers or skydivers further drives up the cost of insuring everyone else . But to know which workers are high-risk requires still more information , whether from medical tests or personal questions and surveillance . A second justification for workplace monitoring is that employers face liability for the actions of their employees (Alderman Kennedy , 1997 ,

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While medical records can be included into background checks , companies often attempt to collect additional information about prospective employees ' preferences and hobbies . In this situation , it 's hard to tell where pre-employment check ends and espionage begins . When companies try to gather data about their employees...