THE DISPARITY BETWEEN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE-SECTOR EMPLOYEE PRIVACY PROTECTIONS - A CALL FOR LEGITIMATE PRIVACY RIGHTS FOR PRIVATE-SECTOR WORKERS

Employees' privacy interests are as capable of being intruded upon by private employers as they are by public employers. Yet it is only public employers who face constitutional limits on their ability to probe into the privacy of employees. Private employers are limited largely by legislation. Some federal legislation exists to protect privacy. State legislation, if it exists at all, is not uniform across the states and puts multi-state employers in a dilemma. Federal legislation is necessary to sew up the patchwork of legislation in this area. It should be guided by articulated principles regarding collecting information about employees, maintaining and using that information, and disclosing the information. A balance between the employer's need for the information in the furtherance of its business and the employee's privacy rights must be struck. Such legislation should apply to private and well as public workers and would respond to global developments in the area of worker privacy.