UPDATE: Does an employer have a duty to protect the personal information of its employees?

In July, I asked whether an employer owes its employees a legal duty to protect their personal information. I discussed cases that answered that question in both the affirmative and the negative. I also suggested that regardless of whether employers have a legal duty to protect the personal information and data of your employees, they still have a significant financial and reputational incentive to take reasonable steps to maintain the privacy and security of all of their information.

The dominoes, however, are starting to fall on the existence of a legal duty.

On the 12th day of Christmas, my employer gave to me … a handgun?

'Tis the season for giving. What's the oddest holiday gift an employer has ever given you? For the employees of one Wisconsin company, the answer might just be a handgun.

WIRTW #532 (the “❤️ the holidays” edition)

On December 25, I will turn 18 in Christmas years. My wife and I starting dating in October 2001, and we celebrated our first Christmas together two months later. I LOVE Christmas. I joke with my wife that I married her for Christmas. I love the lights, the tree, the family togetherness, the snow, and the overall peaceful spirit of the holiday.

And the music. I love Christmas music. Which is why this year, I'm thrilled that I get to combine my favorite holiday with my favorite band.

Today, Old 97's released "Love the Holidays," a collection of twangy Christmas tunes to fill your ears and your soul with yuletide joy.

Take a listen to the exquisitely beautiful "Snow Angels," a song that seeks togetherness in these troubled times, and calls for us to find that which binds us instead of that which us divides us.

Look to your left, look to your right
Everyone of us is a beam of light.
Together, we’re strong. There’s no need to fight.
Everyone of us is a beam of light.

I also dare you not to imagine snow falling outside you window as you listen to the imagery this tune invokes.




The blog is off next week, as I'll be home getting ready for, and then celebrating, my other favorite holiday, Thanksgiving. But, come back the week after when I'll announce the finalists for the Worst Employer of 2018 (have you voted yet?), and take us through the year's home stretch.

Here's what I read this week:

Do you know? Pre-employment medical examinations

A local mayor has gotten himself in some hot water for his selective use of pre-employment medical examinations for hirees. How selective? According to WKYC, one woman claims that the mayor required her and other women, but not men, to be examined by his personal doctor. For his part, the mayor denies the allegations as an act of a "fertile imagination," and claims that he sends all city workers, male and female, to the same doctor for pre-employment exams.

Why would her allegations rise to the level of unlawful activity?

What can you learn from the law firm partner suspended for watching porn at work?

According to The American Lawyer (sub. req.), Hogan Lovells has suspended one of its partners in its London office for watching porn at work. How did it catch the offense?

In IT employee read his internet logs? No.

He forgot to close his browser when he went to the loo and his assistant walked into his office? No.

He visited an unsafe site that spammed his entire office with malware? No.

Do you know? English-only workplace policies

White Americans, what?
Nothing better to do?
Why don't you kick yourself out?
You're an immigrant too!

– White Stripes, Icky Thump (2007).

Estefany Martinez-Gonzalez and Imelda Lucio Lopez, both crew members at a McDonald's restaurant, and both Hispanic, claimed that their employer discriminated against them by requiring them to speak English at work (as opposed to their native Spanish).

Register now for "The Best-Ever Year-End Employment Law Review that Five Employment Law Bloggers Have Ever Presented"

What could you buy for $25?

• Goosh Pants
• A yodeling pickle + Dancing with Cats 
• Gummi Bear Anatomy Model Kit 
• 100 Misprint Ink Pens Ball Point Plastic Retractable Pens + 2 Nicolas Cage pillowcases

What should you buy for $25?

 

One registration to The Best-Ever Year-End Employment Law Review that 

Five Employment Law Bloggers Have Ever Presented