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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2013 - 2014
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | March 11, 2013 03:51 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator Jake Corman |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | Email Monitoring in the Workplace |
| In the near future, I plan to reintroduce Senate Bill 561 of 2011, legislation that would require employers to provide employees with a clear notice if workplace e-mail messages are monitored. Despite the fact that routine monitoring of e-mail by employers has become more prevalent, a common expectation of privacy to those messages still exists. Unfortunately, such a reasonable expectations of privacy is not currently recognized in Pennsylvania. This legislation would clearly provide that employees would have a reasonable expectation to the privacy of their e-mail messages unless their employers provide notice that the content of their email message may be subject to monitoring. It is important that Pennsylvania law provide an equitable balance between the legitimate interest of business to prevent the misuse or abuse of their e-mail systems and the privacy expectations of their employees. An employee, whose email communication has been monitored in violation of this legislation, would be permitted to bring a civil action against the employer no later than one year after discovery of the monitoring. Senate Bill 561 of 2011 – Senators Browne, Tomlinson, Alloway, Erickson, Gordner, Tartaglione, Brewster, Brubaker, Costa, Earll, Farnese, Kasunic, Rafferty, Stack, Washington, D. White and Wozniak. If you have any questions with regard to this co-sponsorship, please contact Scott Sikorski in my office at 787-1377. |
Introduced as SB701