Ogletree Deakins Podcasts
Workplace Strategies Watercooler: Navigating Employee Privacy Rights in California
In this podcast, recorded live from Workplace Strategies 2022, Ogletree Deakins’ national labor and employment law seminar for human resources professionals and in-house counsel, Los Angeles shareholder Betsy Johnson speaks with Hera Arsen, the firm’s director of content, about employee privacy rights under California law and the unique compliance challenges employers face as access to employee personal information increases with technological advancements. The speakers explore the tension between employers’ rights and obligations to safeguard their workplaces and the various invasion-of-privacy risks inherent in following employees on social media, handling medical records and personnel files, conducting background checks of job applicants, monitoring employee internet usage, and implementing drug-testing procedures. Betsy also discusses compliance steps that employers may want to consider taking to set employee expectations of workplace privacy.