The balance between the employees’ right to privacy and the employer’s “right to know.”

I. Intro
A. Define employees’ right to privacy
1. A. Hold within the employee’s workspace. More specifically, it refers to employee’s activities at work and their personal information.
B. Define the employer’s “right to know
1. B. The law that states that employer’s should have the right to know what is going on in and around their working environment and how to protect them selves. More specifically, they should be able to know if there is anything toxic occurring in their working environment.

II. A. Examples of employees right to privacy
1.Work computer
A. Monitoring and making sure that employee are doing what they are supposed to do at work.
2. Drugs and alcohol testing
A. Showing background check of the employees to make sure the employees are eligible to work within the business and have the required qualifications such as degrees and certifications needed for the job
B. Showing their criminal or lack of criminal history
C. Showing their citizenship and if they are not a citizen, showing their work visa.

3. Personal information
A. Health state of employees

B. Examples of employer’s right to know
1. Chemical label
A. Should display a warning of how the chemical is dangerous
2. Material Safety Data Sheets
A. Showing the name of the chemical product to the employees working during their shift and how to prevent exposure to the chemical.
3. Employees need to be trained about how to deal with toxic chemicals
A. This should show them how the employees should use and store the chemical products

III. Difference between them
1. Employees’ right to privacy is dealing with activities at work and employer’s “right to know” is dealing with knowing the type of environment within the work area, such as chemicals used in that area and their risks to employees.

IV. Similarities between them
1.Both of them are dealing with safety within the business.

V. How do they both balance each other out?
The way they are balance out is that employees right to privacy involves personal information about drugs and alcohol test and right to know is using the personal information from employees right to privacy to make sure the work environment is a safe place to work at.

More specifically the background information such as qualifications, education, and experience of each employee helps the employers accurately and safely place employees in the correct environment within a company. The balance and overlap of these two rights allows for a more safe and cohesive work environment.

VI. Conclusion
The ultimate goal is to enhance and build a better work environment. This is achieved by the balance and overlap of the employees right to privacy and the right to know.

Source

Petrylaitė, Daiva, and Gintarė Tamašauskaitė. “Protection Of Employee’s Right To Privacy While Using Information Technologies.” Issues Of Business & Law 1.(2009): 81-100.Business Source Complete. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.

Derickson, Alan. “Inventing The Right To Know.” American Journal Of Public Health 106.2 (2016): 237-245. Consumer Health Complete – EBSCOhost. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.

Park, Susan. “Employee Internet Privacy: A Proposed Act That Balances Legitimate Employer Rights And Employee Privacy.”American Business Law Journal 51.(2014): 779. LexisNexis Academic: Law Reviews. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.