Employees should be aware of their right to privacy in the workplace as well as the laws surrounding surveillance and monitoring. Here is everything you need to know about employee monitoring laws in Ohio.
In general, “employee monitoring” refers to how employers monitor, surveil or check in on their employees and the workplace. Employee monitoring may also refer to methods employers use to track the activities and whereabouts of their employees. Monitoring methods may include audio recordings, video surveillance, or monitoring software that saves emails and phone calls. Though employers generally use these monitoring methods as safety precautions and to reasonably ensure the productivity of their employees, if abused or used inappropriately, monitoring methods may be used as evidence by employees to pursue litigation.
Audio/Video Recording in the Workplace: Employers Recording Employees
If an employer wishes to legally audio record or videotape employees in the workplace, the employer must present a legitimate business reason to be the recording. In other words, employers can legally monitor what an employee does at work if the reason for monitoring is essential enough to the business. Legitimate reasons may include safety and security concerns or internal company investigations. Though employers may have the right to record in the workplace, recordings in areas where employees have a reasonable expectation of privacy are unlawful and constitute an invasion of privacy by “intrusion into seclusion”. Places where employees may expect no recording devices are areas such as restrooms or locker rooms.
Related: Ohio Employee Overtime FAQs
When an employer secretly records an employee or an employee’s conversation at work, invasion of privacy issues may be raised. However, under Ohio law, an employer may monitor and record employee or employee conversations at work so long as the recorded person does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the area or under the circumstances in which the recording occurs. In addition, employers may only secretly record conversations so long as at least one conversation participant is aware the conversation is being recorded.
In regards to company investigations or investigations into compensation claims, employers may have the right to record their employees outside of the workplace secretly. In these cases, places (other than restrooms and locker rooms) where employees may expect privacy, such as public areas outside the workplace are subject to sites of secret recordings.
Whether employees record openly or secretly, they must always have legitimate business reasons to do so. In general, an employer’s policies and office practices may be sufficient to eliminate any reasonable expectation of privacy of employees in the workplace. However, employees may be entitled to litigation if the employer cannot provide legitimate business reasons for recording.
Related: Ohio Wage Payment Laws
Audio/Video Recording in the Workplace: Employees Recording Other Employees
Employers may have policies that prohibit employees from recording other employees and their conversations. These policies are generally enforceable, and the offending employee may be reasonably terminated for violating said policy. If an employee lies about secretly recording people/conversations at work, the employer may terminate the employee for dishonesty. Moreover, if an employee has been warned by a supervisor or employer to stop recording people/conversations and disobeys the order, the employer may terminate the employee and deny unemployment compensation benefits on the basis of insubordination. Even without an employer policy, Ohio courts have upheld the termination of employees who have secretly recorded people and their conversations at work.
Employers Monitoring Phone Calls and Emails
Employers may legally read postal mail, and emails, and monitor phone calls in the interest of their business or company. These monitoring practices must strictly be for professional purposes. This often takes on the form of monitoring business emails. Employers may monitor or look at what employers have written in emails or online chat systems if it is on business emails/systems and if the employer has legitimate business reasons to do so. Deleted emails and voice mail messages may also be recovered and viewed/heard by an employer if the software has not been permanently deleted. An employer accessing and using deleted emails or voice messages is legal. Employers may also monitor what is on an employee’s business computer screen, their Internet activity, and how long the employee’s computer has idled. If the employer monitors emails or computer activity and finds inappropriate or unacceptable behavior within the workplace, the employer may terminate the offending employee.
If the employer is monitoring an employee’s calls for business reasons but realizes that the call is personal, the employer must hang up or stop listening to the call. However, if the employer has explicitly told the employee not to conduct personal conversations on business phones, the employee runs the risk of personal conversations being legally monitored by the employer. Employers may also monitor or listen to an employee’s personal phone conversations if the employee has given the employer consent to do so.
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