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Employee terminated after accessing Facebook from her a home after claiming to be too ill to use a computer at work

Employee terminated after accessing Facebook from her a home after claiming to be too ill to use a computer at work
Source: BBC World News, April 25, 2009

Employee surveillance using the employer?s on-site security cameras is becoming an important issue in terms of employee privacy and the expectation of employees to privacy at the worksite.

For example, employees were threatened with disciplinary action after being observed by a surveillance video camera engaged in sexual intercourse while they were supposed to be working at their respective duties [DiMichel v South Buffalo Railway Company, 80 NY2d 184].

In a case involving allegations of the abuse of sick leave, People v Robert Patino, motion for appeal denied, 81 N.Y.2d 792, a Nassau County police officer was convicted of "disability fraud" after a jury found that he had collected sick leave payments for more than three years while he was able to work. Patino was charged with sick leave abuse and falsifying his application for General Municipal Law Section 207-c disability benefits. Although Patino claimed that his back injury prevented him from performing even light duty work, it was reported that he was video taped doing a number of physical activities including bending and diving.

Now BBC World News reports that an employee?s activity on a computer may result in disciplinary action against the individual.

An employee claiming to be suffering migraine headaches had told her employer, Nationale Suisse, that she needed to lie in a darkened room and could not use her computer while at work.
The company said its discovery that the employee?s using a computer while at home to access ?Facebook? destroyed its trust in her and dismissed her.

Nationale Suisse was reported to have created a fictitious Facebook persona that become "friends" with the employee, allowing the company to monitor her online activity. Nationale Suisse?s rationale for its action: ?those who are well enough to use Facebook with a migraine are well enough to work with a migraine.?

Full post as published by New York Public Personnel Law on May 05, 2009 (boomark / email).