This document summarizes five important employee rights that employers should be aware of: 1) Employee privacy rights regarding personal possessions but limited privacy for business equipment use. 2) Requirement to pay employees fairly and equitably based on work performed without discrimination. 3) Prohibition on discriminating in hiring based on attributes like race, religion, sex or disability and requirement to hire based on qualifications. 4) Requirement under the Americans with Disabilities Act to reasonably accommodate qualified disabled employees. 5) Prohibition on discriminating against employees over 40 years old.

1. 5EmployeeRightsYou
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2. Businesses owners and managers
need to pay attention to their
employees. Although your work to
create a healthy, productive work
environment matters, you can hurt
yourself if you ignore the legal and
regulatory requirements that
affect your firm as an employer.

3. Failure to discover and fulfill your
obligations can result in civil and
legal penalties that can negatively
impact your ability to do business.
The following five employee rights
will remind you of some of your
basic responsibilities as an
employer.

4. Privacy
Although employers have a right to monitor
employees as they do their work, your
employees still have a right to privacy
regarding their personal possessions. These
rights extend to handbags, briefcases, and
lockers. They also apply to mail that is
personally addressed to employees.
Also, you should be aware that employees
may have privacy regarding their telephone
calls and voicemail messages. However,
practically no protections exist for the way
employees use your business’ computers,
network and internet connection

5. Fair
compensation
Labor laws require that you must pay your
employees in a fair and equitable way that at
least approximates industry norms. However,
you must pay employees within your
organization similar wages if they do similar
work.
If you follow this guideline, you will protect
yourself from allegations of gender, age, and
race-based discrimination.

6. Hiring
practices
Federal law prohibits employers from
discriminating in the hiring of workers based on
their race, religion, sex or nationality. Some laws
may also forbid you from discriminating based
on sexual preferences.
Generally speaking, you should hire based on
the knowledge, skills and other capabilities of
an applicant.

7. Disabilities
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
prohibits your firm from discriminating
against qualified candidates with certain
disabilities.
Also, “reasonable accommodation” rules
mean that you must take reasonable
measures to ensure that disabled team
members have equal access to your facility
and work areas.

8. Age
Discrimination
Laws prohibit employers from
discriminating against applicants and
employees who are more than 40 years
old. However, these rules don’t work in
reverse, so you can favor older
employees over younger ones.