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Privacy

Landscape changing for noncompete agreements in Texas

04/07/2008
A year and a half ago, the Texas Supreme Court clarified whether employers may require new and existing employees to sign noncompete agreements without changing their at- will status. The court concluded they can—as long as the employer provides proper consideration in return …

ICE agent in hot water over political data sharing

04/01/2008
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Cory Voorhis is on unpaid leave over allegations that he misused confidential agency data to aid the 2006 gubernatorial campaign of Bob Beauprez …

Privacy issues and e-Mail monitoring

04/01/2008
Q. We would like to monitor e-mail usage at our workplace. Can we access employee e-mail without violating their rights to privacy? …

Employment contracts in North Carolina: What you need to know

04/01/2008
Employers and employees often wonder about the benefits and drawbacks of employment contracts. Most employees do not have employment contracts. However, contracts may be appropriate for company officers, management employees, salespeople and key employees. Who’s right for an employment contract? …

What goes into a personnel file?

03/01/2008

Q. What kinds of information and documents should we keep in our personnel files? …

The policy and legal implications of discussing compensation

03/01/2008

Q. We recently had salary adjustment, and some of our employees have been comparing their raises. But we have a policy that states that compensation matters are confidential. Executives have asked HR to speak to the offending employees and gently remind them about our policy. I am concerned that if I speak to any of the employees, the problem will just get worse. Ideas? …

What legal issues does GPS monitoring raise?

03/01/2008

Q. Our company would like to start a program where all sales employees will use cell phones that have GPS monitoring. We want to keep track of where employees are so we can make sure they make their sales calls in their own territories and are not wasting time. Is this OK to do? Must we tell employees about the GPS monitoring? What about tracking employees after hours? …

Warn staff of new e-Mail scams using IRS’ name

03/01/2008
The IRS last month posted a warning to taxpayers about e-mail and phone-based scams that falsely use the IRS’ name. The goal: Trick you into giving up your Social Security number, credit card info and other key financial data …

Warn staff of new e-Mail scams using IRS’ name

03/01/2008
The IRS has posted a warning about e-mail and phone-based scams that falsely use the agency’s name. The goal: Trick people into giving up their Social Security numbers and other financial data …

Shoot down the legal threat from camera phones

02/05/2008

Cell phones with camera capabilities can expose your organization to legal problems: privacy claims, trade-secret vulnerabilities, employee theft and more. Used inappropriately, camera phones can violate employee and customer privacy. Your best action: Write, and consistently follow, a camera-phone policy and distribute it periodically.