Employee Rights and Responsibilities - Research Paper Example

Based on specific guidelines, granting “time off” with pay is a statutory right of every employee (Lawpack Publishing Limited, 2010). Aside from statutory rights, some contractual rights of employees were also presented in the Harding case. Contractual rights are rights contained in the contract of employment and which were agreed upon by the employer and the employee. Right to employee privacy. This is the right which the employees of Harding Space think is being violated by management. They felt bad having a surveillance camera monitor them and now even their calls will be monitored.

Right to know the reasons for monitoring the staff. Employees have a right to know that there is monitoring, what is being monitored and why it is being done. Harding must explain to its employees why there is a need for it. One reason which they can give why the calls are being monitored is because of the highly confidential nature of their business which involves large aerospace contracts of the government. Right to join or not to join a labor union. In the last part of the case, the company spokesman mentioned about how grateful he is that they do not have a union because a disgruntled employee may decide to join the union, if it exists.

In the case presented, the employees of Harding have a right to form a union. If they do so, the management might have a problem with the issue of monitoring employees because of the possibility that the union might fight against it. Question 9 There are several rights of privacy that employees have while on the job. Right to his personal possessions. The employee has the right to his personal belongings including his briefcase or handbag (FindLaw, 2011). Right to personal storage lockers. The personal storage lockers should only be accessible to the employee (FindLaw, 2011).

Since Harding has already set up TV cameras in the workplace, they should be guided by law that they are not allowed to put cameras in private areas such as comfort rooms or locker rooms. Right to personally-addressed mail. An employer cannot open a privately addressed mail to his employee because it is considered an intrusion to the rights of privacy of the employee. The case did not show any violation of this right. Right to telephone conversations and voice mails. This right is sometimes subject to monitoring restrictions as shown in the case of Harding Space.

“The federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) places some limitations on an employer's right to monitor its employees' telephone usage at work. Under the Act, an employer usually may not monitor an employee's personal phone calls, even those made from telephones on work premises” (FindLaw, 2009). In the Harding’s case, management was concerned about the personal calls being made by its employees that is why they issued a memo asking their employees to eliminate personal calls.

I don’t think that Harding can impose a “total ban” on personal calls because that is a right of the employee. What Harding can do is to make a memo stating a certain limit to personal calls. I suggest that if long distance personal calls