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Right to Privacy

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ccheney

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Maryland

My husband was recently released from his job in a supermarket because of health issues. That isn't the problem. The problem is store employees are telling customers he was fired for supposedly buying beer on company time which is totally false. Regardless should store employees be telling customers anything about why he was let go? Doesn't he have some right to privacy?
 


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Beth3

Senior Member
No laws prohibit anyone from sharing the reason someone was terminated with whomever they please. Since some store employees are sharing a false reason, I suggest your husband contact his former employer and speak with his manager and/or HR and ask they to address the situation. If he knows who is giving out the incorrect info, he should tell his employer. (Plus I rather doubt management will be at all pleased for employees to be discussing the reason anyone was terminated with customers, even if the information is accurate.)
 
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ccheney

Junior Member
Thank you for your response. I question also should management even discuss with other employees who are not management and therefor have no reason to be told the reason an employee left the company or was terminated?
 
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commentator

Senior Member
As my grandmother used to say, "You can't keep fools from talking." There is no law that would allow you to sue other employees where your husband used to work for telling false reasons he was fired. Or valid reasons.

Either way, if your husband can no longer work due to illness, he needs to be thinking of filing for disability insurance. If he later recovers his health, he can then file for unemployment insurance.

But in any case, by the time he has been off work for a few weeks, no one in the world will care about the reason he left the job anyhow. If he later applies for other jobs and the employer gave false information about the reason he left the job,that might be a more serious matter, but right now, there is no damage, no loss to you about what they are saying. They'll quit talking when they lose interest.
 
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swalsh411

Senior Member
ccheney said:
Thank you for your response. I question also should management even discuss with other employees who are not management and therefor have no reason to be told the reason an employee left the company or was terminated?
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There is no law which forbids them from telling other employees (or the whole world for that matter) why an employee was fired.
 
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ccheney

Junior Member
commentator said:
As my grandmother used to say, "You can't keep fools from talking." There is no law that would allow you to sue other employees where your husband used to work for telling false reasons he was fired. Or valid reasons.

Either way, if your husband can no longer work due to illness, he needs to be thinking of filing for disability insurance. If he later recovers his health, he can then file for unemployment insurance.

But in any case, by the time he has been off work for a few weeks, no one in the world will care about the reason he left the job anyhow. If he later applies for other jobs and the employer gave false information about the reason he left the job,that might be a more serious matter, but right now, there is no damage, no loss to you about what they are saying. They'll quit talking when they lose interest.
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The health issue was that he was in an accident, not job related, and he broke his arm and cracked a rib and was out of work for a month and they said he missed too much time because of that.
 
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pattytx

Senior Member
I take it that him being let go "is not the problem" is either because the employer is too small to be subject to FMLA or your husband didn't meet the criteria for eligibility?
 
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Beth3

Senior Member
ccheney said:
Thank you for your response. I question also should management even discuss with other employees who are not management and therefor have no reason to be told the reason an employee left the company or was terminated?
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You don't know that management discussed the reason for your husband's termination with anyone. Based on the conjecture some employees are have come up with, it would appear they didn't.
 
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ccheney

Junior Member
Beth3 said:
You don't know that management discussed the reason for your husband's termination with anyone. Based on the conjecture some employees are have come up with, it would appear they didn't.
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Actually I do know because the friend of ours who was told by the employee said the employee said "The manager told me that Peter was let go because.... This was within several hours of my husband being let go. We hadn't even had a chance to tell anyone ourselves.
 
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swalsh411

Senior Member
ccheney said:
Actually I do know because the friend of ours who was told by the employee said the employee said "The manager told me that Peter was let go because.... This was within several hours of my husband being let go. We hadn't even had a chance to tell anyone ourselves.
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So your evidence is third or fourth generation hearsay?

It doesn't matter anyway. The employer broke no laws.
 
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ccheney

Junior Member
No but my husband did speak his ex manager and found out that it is a violation of company privacy policy for employees to tell customers or other employees (except manager to manager) who have no legitimate reason to know, about what you know or think you know about someone being fired. All they are supposed to say is so and so left the company or something along those lines. Hopefully this will take care of it.
 
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cbg

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
That is strictly an internal matter. No laws were broken; no legal recourse is available.

As far as the LAW is concerned, they could take out a billboard on I-295 displaying his name and the reason he was fired, and there would STILL be nothing illegal about it.

There is far less right to privacy in the workplace than most people assume.
 
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