Right to Privacy Violated?

Question

My wife left work early on wednesday because she was having chest pains. She went to the emergency room to have it checked out. While she was out, our healthcare provider attempted to reach her at work. Her co-worker answered the phone, informed them that my wife was not there, and asked if she could take a message for her. The lady from our healthcare provider said that she could only talk to my wife, and asked if she could be tranfered to my wife's voicemail. The co-worker said yes and transfered her to my wife's voicemail. When my wife returned to work on thursday, her co-worker informed her that their boss had, after hearing that our healthcare provider was tranferred into my wife's voicemail, logged on to my wife's work computer, accessed her voicemail, and played the message on speakerphone loudly enough for others to hear. Then, after listening to the message, she deleted it, and never said a word to my wife. My wife still does not know what the message was about. Is this legal? And, if not, what options do we have here? My wife and I feel like her right to privacy has been violated and she is no longer comfortable working there. It's a small company, and the head of the HR department at the company headquarters is a close friend of my wife's boss. She feels she has nobody to report this to, and we just really want to discuss the legality of what her boss did, and whether or not we have grounds for any kind of legal action against her or the company. Any help would be greatly appreciated. We live and work in California if that matters. Thank you very much.

Answer 1

What you have is a clear example of a violation of privacy.  The representitive who called made sure to say that the call was confidiential, and they said that for a reason.  An employer has no right to terminate employment based on medical history, and that also includes snooping into an employees medical history.  You more than likely will not have a criminal case, but a civil case I can see in your future.  Contact an attorney right away, you can schedule an appointment and discuss your options with them.

Answer 2

I am NOT a lawyer, nor do I know any laws, in fact I do not even have a job. BUT I believe that may be a violation due to the fact that the employer could discriminate (like choose not to keep her) because of what the doctor said.

EDIT:  Also I don't know if this rule applies, but I think it is illegal to read someone's mail (in this case voice mail), let alone destroy all record of it. Different things apply however for different jobs.

Answer 3

It seems to me that was illegal. (Not to mention HIGHLY immoral!) First, I would see a lawyer.  Before you confront your boss, make sure you have the receptionist on your side if it goes to court.  She may be hesitant about that because she may feel like she'll lose her job, but I suppose you could get a subpoena.

The lawyer should have suggestions about how to deal with HR.  I'm not normally one for lawsuits, but this boss of hers sounds like a crooked, insane, man.  Hopefully your wife will get some compensation about this.  Good luck!

Answer 4

Is this legal?

In a nutshell yes, the employer owns the computer, the phone and by all means the voicemail.

Your best bet is to ask a lawyer not yahoo answers, but from what I've seen in the legal issues with regards to computers/email/phones, you may have no recourse.

My suggestion, is two either find a job and leave! Have your wife take her skills to an employer that will treat her with respect.

Or

Have her sit down with the boss and HR and have her express her feelings. Once she expresses this, if the boss retaliates then you may have a case against the company. Even that is not a strong case.

Answer 5

You need to report it "In writing" to the HR dept. File a formal complaint. You have to give them a chance to do the right thing.

If you don't complain then in the eyes of the court they did nothing wrong.

If the HR persons or the company dosen't address it properly then you will have them by the proverbial BALLS

Answer 6

you have no right to any data being private at work. their computers, their phones, there right to see or hear it.

if your wife doesn't know what the message was by now, how about asking the people who do know, like everyone else in the office, or the doctor him or herself?

duh.

Answer 7

Wow.  First lesson to learn is that voice mail at work is never private.  

That said, the boss knew that the phone call was from your wife's doctor/nurse practitioner/p.a./whatever.  That right there was enough to alert the boss that he didn't have the right to listen to the message.  And that he listened to it, deleted it, and didn't tell your wife about it is most assuredly a violation of her privacy.  

Why hasn't she called the doctor's office back to tell them she never got the message?  She needs to know what was said in the message before she confronts the boss or talks to HR or gets a lawyer.

Beyond that, she should get a copy of the employee handbook as well as the company policies/procedures manual.  She needs to find out their exact policies on employee privacy and she needs to know their exact procedures for filing a formal complaint.  I don't know what kind of legal action you can take, but you can talk to an attorney who specializes in employment issues.  He may tell your wife to follow the company's complaint/grievance procedures before taking legal action.

But get the books from the company and get the information from the doctor - IN WRITING - about the message.

Answer 8

I would write a letter to the editor of your newspaper and name names and call your TV stations and speak with one or their investigative reporters.

By the way a good computer geek can retrieve it and show the time it was listened to and the time it was deleted.

Answer 9

First of all, the employer cannot just log into someone else's voice mail and listen to personal, especially medical related messages. This is a violation of her privacy. What makes this part of it even worse is that the boss knew the message was about a personal medical issue - which makes the act intentional and malicious.

Then, by playing the message loud enough for others to hear, it is quite possible this further act violated HIPPA, the Health Information Portability and Privacy Act, which protects health information from being disclosed, especially by an employer.

Both issues could land the employer in hot water, and potentially facing a very hefty judgment through a lawsuit.  My recommendation: find a really good lawyer from a large firm. This case deserves the best lawyers because both the employer, and the boss individually, could be facing huge money in a trial - and deservedly so!