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** WorkLaw Alert **
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EMPLOYEE PRIVACY PROTECTIONS FOR REAL - IDENTITY
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Although understood by most human resource professionals, employee privacy has taken a low priority with business owners and directors. Efforts to extract more information about workers continue to intensify. The concern over terrorism and workplace violence demands that a company conduct extensive background checks and investigations. Even HIPAA's privacy regulations, effective April 2003, have not received significant attention. Identify theft (fraud), a subset of employee privacy, may force even the most myopic employers to start paying attention.
The federal government's identify fraud website (www.consumer.gov) offers examples of how the perpetrators work:
--They open a new credit card account, using your name, date of birth, and Social Security number. When they use the credit card and don't pay the bills, the delinquent account is reported on your credit report.
--They call your credit card issuer and, pretending to be you, change the mailing address on your credit card account. Then, your imposter runs up charges on your account. Because your bills are being sent to the new address, you may not immediately realize there's a problem.
--They establish cellular phone service in your name.
--They open a bank account in your name and write bad checks on that account.
Social Security Number fraud has increased over 500% since 1998: 11,000 incidents to 65,000 in 2001. In response to the growing problem, Congress enacted the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act of 1998 that criminalizes identify fraud. (The December issue of HR Magazine provides timely information about the problem. See www.shrm.org.)
As expected, criminals have identified a major source of identify information - employer personnel files, benefits data, and payroll and tax records. Unfortunately, most companies have not safeguarded employee identify data. The pilferage of hard files, as well as the hacking of electronic files, continues to be a major problem. Some companies do not realize they freely make available identity information. Company websites often contain employee names, addresses, email sites, birth and residence data, and other information useful to perpetrate identify fraud. The intra-company distribution of credit card names and numbers and passport information encourages the disclosure of identity information to persons outside the company.
Recently, an employee at a New York Corporation was arrested for downloading and selling thousands of credit reports to criminals. After obtaining access to credit reports, the outside criminals obtained new checks, ATM cards, lines of credit and quickly drained them. In a separate incident in Florida, the Secret Service arrested a former Prudential employee for downloading the names and personal information of 60,000 individuals for the purpose of selling information to outsiders.
Company liability related to identify theft can be substantial. Unlike many laws that address employee privacy, most of the identify fraud exposure for an employer has no relation to company size. Company liability may surface for failing to act as a reasonable employer. Companies should ask how would a reasonable employer protect employee identify when:
hiring or recruiting workers;
monitoring the work of its current workers;
maintaining existing identify information;
responding to claims or efforts of identify theft; and
developing contractual relations within and outside company.
As with most human resource programs, employers must overcome the inertia resisting an investment in reviewing employee privacy concerns. Like many employee programs, taking the time to consider employee privacy may produce substantial benefits especially since CEO's have credit cards too.
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WorkLaw Alert is provided by the Atlanta-based labor law firm of Taylor English LLP, an alliance partner of GreenSearch, and summarizes significant laws and cases affecting the workplace. Taylor English LLP represents many green industry employers and associations. As with most legal summaries, WorkLaw Alert is not intended to be legal advice. If you have questions about any particular situation, please contact your local counsel or Ray Stanford, Taylor English Duma at
678-336-7144 or rstanford@taylorenglish.com
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** WorkLaw Alert **
CHANGING PRIOR PRACTICES OR TREATMENT!
Can a new supervisor change the rules?......
Read more here.
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