What laws federal or state are broken when someone at work is recorded by another employee from a cell phone?
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What laws federal or state are broken when someone at work is recorded by another employee from a cell phone?
My work partner and I were doing a job at work. A fellow employee began recording us from his cell phone with out our knowledge from the start of the job. In doing this he recorded a safety violation. Instead of stopping us to worn us he continued to record. He called the duty supervisor over showed him the recording from the cell phone. At this point we still did not know what was going on. The recording was sent to the same duty supervisors cell phone and sent to the safety persons cell phone as part of the investigation. Were my personal rights violated.
Asked on June 30, 2012 under Personal Injury, Arizona
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 12 years ago | Contributor
Your fellow employee may have violated the law: Arizona is what's known as a one-party consent state, which meants that recording a conversation is legal so long as at least one of the people in the conversation agrees or consents to it. If the fellow employee were part of the conversation, therefore, he could legally record it; however, if he was not part of the conversation, I do not believe that he could, and in that instance, your rights may have been violated. Unfortunately, even if your rights were violated, while the employee may be guilty of a crime, that would necessarily not stop your employer from considering the recording of the conversation sent to it--an illegal recording can be kept out of government proceedings, but a private employer can often make use of it even if the person who made the recording faces liabilty him- or herself.
Again though, the first critical issue is whether the other employee was part of the conversation (could record it) or was not part of it (could not record it).
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