Privacy Rights Issues in the Workplace

Do you know what an employee’s and employer’s privacy rights are? And if they claim such rights exist under the U.S. or a State constitution, statute or the common law if they are right or how you will respond? Can you identify if any policies, practices or actions create an unreasonable “intrusion into seclusion” or places someone in a “false light” in the public eye (defamation)? Are you inadvertently appropriating someone’s name or likeness without their consent? And what about monitoring, surveilling, or searching employees without violating their privacy rights? And if you do it wrong, are you prepared to face the consequences of actual, compensatory, or punitive damages and damage to your own professional reputation and standing within your work community? This webinar has been developed to answer all these questions and more by exploring the foundations, current state, and possible future changes of privacy in the workplace.

• What the U.S. Constitution (1st, 4th ,5th and 14th Amendments) says about privacy, how the courts interpreted it and how it affects the workplace?
• What is meant by “Invasion of privacy “and what are the balancing tests and exceptions courts use to determine if the following concepts were violated?
• • “Reasonable expectation of privacy.”
  • “Intrusion into seclusion.”
  • “Unreasonable publicity” of one’s private life.
  • False light/defamation
• Remedies and employer defenses for “invasion of Privacy” claims
• How and why employer obligations differ in the private and public sectors.
• Federal v State privacy law differences
• Different types of Invasions of Privacy claims
• Searches
• Political speech and privacy
• Monitoring and Surveillance
• “Employment at will” versus privacy
• Employer investigations and employee privacy rights
• Statutory Privacy Rights
• Biometric developments

• Managers
• Supervisors
• Executives
• All Levels of both in-house and outside counsel
• All levels of Union representation and officers
• Business Representatives
• Business Managers
• Presidents
• Officers
• Board Members
• Human Resources and specifically labor Relations
• All levels of security personnel/staff or anyone who participates in conducting an investigation

Bob Oberstein's career in Human Resources and Labor Relations spans over 48 years. Bob is uniquely qualified in this area having started out as a third-generation Union member who has represented both sides of the labor management table in both the public and private sectors in both the non-union and union workplace.

As an Interest Based facilitator he trained and coached parties on how to constructively process their negotiations to a successful conclusion thereby promoting and enhancing their relationship. Bob has also served the labor management community as a neutral fact finder, mediator and arbitrator for multiple organizations and agencies such as the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, American Arbitration Association, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Tucson Unified School District, Phoenix Employment Relations Board, Arizona Department of Education, United States Postal Service, and being a Special Master mediating and arbitrating disputes between, Fry's Food Stores & UFCW, Local 99. Several of his arbitration awards have been published by the Bureau of National Affairs as well as Commerce Clearing House and are referenced in How Arbitration Works by Elkouri & Elkouri, often considered the consummate reference in the field of arbitration. Bob was recognized in 1991 by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service's "Director's Lifetime Achievement Award" for promoting positive labor management relations.

Also significant in his background are the positions of Labor Relations Administrator for EBASCO Services (nuclear power plant construction for both Florida and Louisiana Power & Light); Senior Labor Relations Administrator for the Salt River Project, the local water and power utility in Phoenix, Arizona; Executive Human Resources Director for the Washington Elementary School District (largest elementary school district in Arizona); Labor Relations Administrator and chief spokesperson for the City of Phoenix, Arizona; and most recently Labor Relations Manager in the northwest United States. Bob is also a member of the Society for Human Resource Management, International Public Management Association and the National Public Employers Labor Relations Association and has been recognized by these organizations as achieving certified professional and senior certified professional status.