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Off site videoing employees while on Medical Leave

PoohPooh 2 Posts
in HR & Employment Law Vote Up0Vote Down
What are the laws concerning employers videoing the employee while on medical leave, Worker's Comp. to be exact. We terminated an employee that was out of work due to a Workers' Comp. injury. The termination was based soley on the video, and what those doing the video said, even though the Dr. still had the employee out of work.
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  • 4 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • David Hagaman GADavid Hagaman GA 21 Posts
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    I am not aware of any federal law that would prohibit this practice. You should check your state's laws on this to be safe. Our clients regularly put suspected work comp malingerers on video, and one of our clients recently won a disability discrimination case in MO with video of the employee doing strenuous manual work while claiming that he couldn't work in the plant.
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  • RockieRockie 2,136 Posts
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    I don't know of any law that would prohibit this as it seems to happen all the time - WC abusers get caught working at strenuous jobs while drawing WC from another company. I would caution the company not to have employees doing this. I would contract with an outside agency to do this or a private investigator that specializes in WC abuse.
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  • NickNick 20 Posts
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    The employee does not have an expectation of privacy for anything that they do out in public. I video taped an employee working for his own small construction business while he was required to be home taking care of a parent. He was working his job at the same time he could be working for our company. I contacted the DOL and inquired about this situation. The DOL saw nothing wrong with me protecting the company against benefit fraud. I notified the Union and they requested that the employee come in for a meeting. I had the video set up and all have had to say was that I had a video of the employee working. The employee confessed to a number of activities that was not included on the video. The employee had to pay back the cost of his benefits, he was put on suspension, and was given a last chance agreement. He was a very productive employee before and after the situation and the rest of the workforce received a strong message. We received no grievence from the entire ordeal.
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  • Don DDon D 9,834 Posts
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    I suggest requesting/letting the comp carrier actually handle the arrangements for the video taping. They should handle that just like they handle the legal work to advance the controvert process.
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