Legal Question in Business Law in Virginia

Re: Employee Confidentiality

Well, if it is a private company, they can more or less do whatever they want, especially in Virginia. There are some restrictions, but not many.

The most important question I think is whether they violated their own policies. In effect, if the HR manager is just as guilty as you were -- or more so -- will they treat him with equal punishment?

The problem with taking legal action to get money is that what the HR manager told your co-worker is (if I understand your question) actually true. If the HR manager spread false information about you that hurt your reputation, he and the company could be sued very easily for defamation / slander (although beware of the 1 year statute of limitations for this in Virginia).

But if he shared something that is TRUE, but embarrassing, such as you were suspended for 2 days, they cannot be sued for telling the truth.

(However, be careful to consider whether there is a MIXTURE of truth and falsehood in waht was shared.)

In a liberal state like California you could sue for intentional infliction of emotional distress. However, that is disfavored in Virginia. Not impossible, but an uphill struggle to win on those grounds in business-leaning, conservative Virginia.

I would definitely hammer every way in which they violated their own rules. You may be able to persuade them to give you some benefit.

However, such things are very hard to pursue under Virginia law. In California, you would probably be in "gravy" and able to sue for all sorts of things for this.