Legal Question in Technology Law in Massachusetts
Employee email monitoring
I have a client who wants to be automatically CC'ed on every employee email that goes out of the email system, its hosted in-house, & has the company name in the domain-name and email addresses.
The boss, would be looking at email from 20 to 30 users, but not all users. Some are excluded.
He said they want to review how employees are interacting with customers, etc, via email.
I am worried about my involvement in such a set up.
I suggested to tell employees of the new policy 1st, THEN do whatever desired.
That usually would fix any employee email / Web abuse, in my experience, real fast too..
They dont want to tell the employees of this policy. It seems temporary, and I was told to set it up, and its my job to do ''covert stuff'' like this.
This is a very good freelance client who keeps me busy half the week. I cant quit this client at the moment...that isnt an option.
Well, I think this is wrong, but the boss doesnt want to listen to any reasoning.
They feel the law is quite clear - employees have no expectation of privacy when at work.
However, I'm not sure they do or do not need to be told of such policy in advance, according to the law.
Thank you.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Employee email monitoring
In general, your instinct is correct -- employers in Massachusetts are permitted to monitor email and other computer activity, even covertly, so long as employees have first been notified of this possibility. It is possible, however, that your client has notified its employees by saying something like this in the employee handbook or some other document which every employee receives. If so, that is usually sufficient (provided that there is some proof that the employee received it). If not, the employer is definitely treading on thin ice here... I represent primarily employers in employment matters and I always advise my clients that they need to notify employees prior to monitoring their email or other computer activity.
Evan
Related Questions & Answers
Looking for something else?
10,200 active attorneys ready to answer your legal questions today.
Featured Attorneys
Earn additional revenue and grow your business.
