QUESTION
Are there legal ramifications if a coworker snoops through confidential files to find out the pay per hour of another coworker?
Asked on Sep 18th, 2011 on Business Law - Georgia
More details to this question:
I am a "Shift Leader" or on the management team for a restaurant and my fellow shift leader decided to take it upon himself to look into either our boss'' confidential pay stub information or into my personal file to find out my pay per hour. I have been with this company for 4 years, and he then had the nerve to complain to the boss that I get paid "more than I should" in his eyes. He has zero authority to do this and I was wondering if this is a breach of privacy for which either he or the company may be responsible.
1 ANSWER
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The key question here is one of practicality. Even though non-public information has arguably been obtained, you have not been damaged in any legally recognized way. As I am sure you are aware, in many businesses compensation is an open book, so the mere knowledge of such information is not considered to be harmful. Moreover, as is clear, the employee sought and received this information primarily for the purpose of increasing his own compensation, not reducing yours or otherwise harming you. I don't see that there's much to be done about it. If you want to think about this further, you'll need to engage the services of an employment-law attorney.
Answered on Sep 19th, 2011 at 10:52 AM