1. & 4. New technologies make it possible for employers to monitor many aspects of their employees' jobs, especially on telephones, computer terminals, through electronic and voice mail, and when employees are using the Internet. Such monitoring is virtually unregulated. Therefore, unless company policy specifically states otherwise (and even this is not assured), your employer may listen, watch and read most of your workplace communications.

2. In most instances, yes. For example, employers may monitor calls with clients or customers for reasons of quality control. However, when the parties to the call are all in California, state law requires that they be informed that the conversation is recorded or monitored by either putting a beep tone on the line or playing a recorded message. (California Public Utilities Commission General Order 107-B, www.cpuc.ca.gov/Published/Graphics/567.pdf) Not every business is aware of this requirement, so your calls might still be monitored without a warning. Federal law, which regulates phone calls with persons outside the state, does allow unannounced monitoring for business-related calls. (See Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 USC 2510, et. seq., www.law.cornell.edu/uscode .)An important exception is made for personal calls. Under federal case law, when an employer realizes the call is personal, he or she must immediately stop monitoring the call. (Watkins v. L.M. Berry & Co., 704 F.2d 577, 583 (11^th Cir. 1983)) However, when employees are told not to make personal calls from specified business phones, the employee then takes the risk that calls on those phones may be monitored.

3. The answer here is yes, your employer is required to let you know the cameras are there. The main issues are where the employer wants to put the cameras and why. Your employer must have a reasonable, legitimate business reason for wanting to monitor his employees by camera, such as for security reasons or to prevent theft. Some states have made certain areas of the workplace off-limits to cameras, such as restrooms.

5.The answer depends on what your employer's policies are, and what the employer's reason is for searching employees. If something very expensive has gone missing, and your employer has a written policy in place warning employees that they may be searched, then it may be legal. However, your employer still would be required to search employees in a reasonable way. For example, searching purses, briefcases, and backpacks, but not bodies. If your employer is simply conducting searches as a daily routine, they may be overstepping their bounds.

There are some factors that should be kept in mind to keep a workplace search by an employer legitimate:

• Only do a search for a work-related problem, and only do the search in an area where it is completely necessary. This means that when a business computer has gone missing, the employer cannot take the opportunity to go looking through employees' desks since the missing equipment will obviously not be found there.
• Generally an employer will want to have a search policy before they ever have a search. Therefore, employees will know what parts of the workplace may not be subject to very much privacy.
• There are generally a few private places that will always be off limits to a search. For one thing, bodily searches should never be done by the employer. Also, employers must be careful about what kinds of search tactics used for areas like bathrooms and changing rooms. Something like setting up surveillance cameras in this area can be a bad idea for the employer since these are very sensitive, private areas of the workplace.
• Also, an employer should never try to hold an employee against his will. This can be considered false imprisonment which is an illegal act.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Thanks!