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Troutman Sanders LLP is an international law firm with over 650 attorneys and 12 offices in North America, Europe and Asia. Its clients range from Fortune 500 companies to small businesses; nonprofit organizations to individual entrepreneurs; multinational corporations to federal and state agencies and foreign governments. Employees, state governments and watchdog groups are growing increasingly concerned about the privacy of workers -- especially when it comes to medical information. With the legal climate changing and intensifying, employers should take special care to ensure they do not put themselves into unnecessary jeopardy.
Take a lawsuit filed by police dispatchers for the Columbus, Ohio, police department. The department requires dispatchers to provide evidence of illness when calling in sick or using the federal Family and Medical Leave Act. But the dispatchers charge private medical information could be reviewed by an employee's superiors "in the chain of command."
The suit is still being argued, but the law firm of Troutman and Sanders warns employers that regardless of the outcome, it is a warning of how seemingly standard practice may now come under scrutiny. "The lesson to be learned is that employers should carefully consider how they handle all types of sensitive employee information, including medical and health information, implement appropriate policies that have been vetted so as to comply with applicable laws that may arguably give some privacy benefit to employees," the firm warns.
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