issues

Employee Privacy & Free Speech

If your employer violated your privacy, silenced your voice or retaliated against you for something you said, your legal rights may have been violated.

You may not have the absolute right to free speech at work, but you do have many protections under the law.

 

As a law firm focused on workers’ rights, we frequently negotiate employment agreements that seek to limit access to information, reduce your expectation of privacy, or limit what you can publicly say about your work. These agreements, issued by companies to professionals, executives and independent contractors, often contain clauses that can be negotiated, or are unenforceable under the law.

We also represent employees who challenge corporate speech suppression policies. In California for example, employers often enact policies that limit or suppress their employees’ right to speak freely about their work experience. When employers seek to enforce these unlawful policies or engage in retaliation, we aggressively defend our clients’ rights.

In California, employee speech suppression can take several forms, including an employer’s broad labeling of internal information as confidential, prohibitions on discussing wages and working conditions, and retaliation or punishment over the “leaking” of information that a company wrongly considers private.

California law specifically protects the rights of employees to:

  • Talk about your salary or wages or those of your colleagues
  • Inquire about your colleague’s salary or wages
  • Discuss your employer’s working conditions
  • Become a whistleblower, either by reporting violations of the law internally, to the government, or to a law enforcement agency.

Speech Suppression in Noncompete Agreements

California law also protects your right to freely move from one employer to the next, discuss the work you performed, talk about your former employer’s workplace conditions, and reveal certain business tactics, strategies, and relationships that your employer may illegally regard as trade secrets. These protections cover you no matter where your employer is based, where your noncompete agreement was executed, and whether you work remotely or not.

 

 

Framing the Issue

  • The Stored Communications Act (SCA) often protects employees’ private electronic communications, such as those made via personal email and social media accounts against unauthorized access by employers.
  • Similarly, where employers use spyware to track you without your authorization, they may be in violation of the Wiretap Act.
  • Colorado and Illinois require employers to obtain your consent to collect DNA, fingerprints, eye scans, and other forms of biometric information. Colorado also prohibits using biometrics to monitor your location or how much time you spend using an electronic device or application.
  • In California, the law specifically protects your right to discuss your salary or wages, inquire about your colleague’s salary or wages, discuss your working conditions, and become a whistleblower.
  • California law protects your right to move to a new employer and discuss the work, conditions, and business tactics, strategies, and relationships your former employer may over-classify as trade secrets.

Notable Matters

  • In a case that a California state agency praised as “significant…in inducing Google to change its policies” we represented approximately 97,000 Google employees in Doe v. Google, a free speech case brought under California’s Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA). After intensively litigating the case for several years, we negotiated a $27 million settlement, which set a record for the largest PAGA-only settlement in California’s history.
  • In Correa v. Adecco, which is related to Doe v. Google, we are pursuing these claims to protect the rights of permanent and temp workers to speak up about their work experience and find new jobs, free of unlawful restrictions.
  • In Favila v. Schwab, we are prosecuting similar claims, alleging that Schwab unlawfully restricts its California workers’ speech and ability to freely apply for employment with other companies.

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Does your company have policies that restrict your ability to talk about your wages or work experience?

If you you're dealing with a privacy or free speech issue, or you've lost your job because of something you discussed at work, we're ready to fight for your rights.

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