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Employee Confidentiality

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majebe

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Indiana

I have an employee that ran up a employee purchase charge account over $1000.00 and then quit. Numerous attempts were made to have him pay his bill. No response from him, so a certified letter was sent giving him a period of time to pay the bill or contact the store manager to make payment arrangements.

Today I received a letter stating that a breach in confidentiality was made, because the manager of the store was overheard talking about what this person owes.

My question is: Was there any type of confidentiality issue here??

Thank you.
 


I'll have to give it more thought, but my knee jerk answer is no breach occurred. To whom was the manager supposedly speaking about the incident? How does the former employee know that?

In any case, I think you're okay as long as the information relayed was truthful. Employees (and former employees) often think they have rights to confidentiality they simply don't have. Most information about employees is company property, so you could legally mail all your clients a list of the employee salaries and post employee performance evaluations and disciplinary actions on the Internet if you wanted to. The only information I can think of right off the top of my head that should remain confidential is medical information. Other than that, I think you're free to divulge just about anything you want as long as you tell the truth.

I've been in HR over 20 years so you'd think this answer would come easy to me, but honestly, I don't run into this situation because I simply keep my mouth shut about employee issues except to those who absolutely need to know. You might want to have a talk with this manager and suggest he/she do the same!

I'll add this...even if there is a breach of confidentiality, I don't think that is going to negate the employee's repayment responsibility. He can go ahead an file whatever lawsuit he feels compelled to file due to the "breach," but he still has to repay his debt to you or you can certainly take him to small claims court.

Just my .02! :cool:
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
The ONLY information that an employer is required by law to keep confidential, is certain medical information.

While there is other information that etiquette suggests should be kept confidential, the law does not require it.

If the employee is threatening legal action because of this supposed confidentiality breach, tell him, politely of course, to pound sand. And to pay up. Suz is absolutely right - even if there had been a breach, which there hasn't, it would not negate his responsibility to pay what is owed. He's blowing smoke at you trying to get you to forgive the debt.
 

Beth3

Senior Member
Agreed. Absolutely no confidentiality issues here. Send the bozo a registered letter stating he has until [date] to pay what he owes you in full or else you'll be filing suit. Then do so if he doesn't pay - get a garnishment against his present wages (which, by the way, will also require him to pay the court costs.)
 

BelizeBreeze

Senior Member
This is a joke. Unless the return letter was on letterhead of an attorney, put it in his file and wait until this jerk has the guts to file suit. If it was from an attorney, turn it over to your in-house counsel...they could probably use the laugh.
 

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