Employee Privacy Rights in the Workplace: Protecting Information

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 sites are: 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 your personal information. Although the sites are very useful for job employment it should be limited to who can access this information.

For a little money, say $25, one can obtain someone's Social Security number, previous addresses and possibly their driving record. "Most people don't realize how much information about them is out there," says Deirdra Mulligan, staffs counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology. This statement is very true; some can provide detailed financial histories, including information about bank accounts and credit card balances and loans. This information needs to be safeguarded from the public, it is important to have this useful information 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 not hard 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 surveys

2. Credit checks (applying for credit cards)

3. Registering with a club

4. Locking your work cabinets when leaving the area

5. Locking your computer when not working

All of these suggested steps are very useful. One of the laws that are important in the healthcare workplace is HIPAA (Heath Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996). This law to was invented to improve portability and continuity of health insurance coverage in the group and individual markets, to combat waste, fraud, and abuse in health insurance and health care delivery, to promote the use of medical savings accounts, to improve 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 they are 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 a lot of other employees information through word of mouth. Disciplinary action should be given when spreading information about another employee. Some people you may work with may have Aids, Cancer, Leukemia, and other diseases. This should be confidential due to other employees' conditions. That will make an employee feel uncomfortable in the workplace. Something that should be placed on the application among being hired is to have a box to check that disclosing any personal information about another employee should lead to some kind of disciplinary action. This will let people being hired know that this is something 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 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, this cause for the employee not to have advancement in the workplace. When hiring someone they should have the equal opportunity to be trained, to understand the job a lot of companies look 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 you can not get the proper training, it is sometimes hard to get ahead. Some people do not catch on as fast as others, everyone is not hands on. Training will provide the opportunity to learn the job, and prevent mistakes. Verses to when you learn hands on, you make mistakes to learn the job. This can cost the company to have the mistakes corrected.

Training is also something that should be given periodically, (refresher courses). This will help employees to be refreshed on what they have learned in the beginning and to make sure that every one is on the right page. When learning, it is important that everyone understands the same way. You do not want everyone to have different understandings. It also does not set 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 some cases certain employees are denied the advancement due to gender, age or race. EEOC

...