Ask the Lawyer received the following question (paraphrased for easier reading and clarity) from a reader on a legal matter that might be of interest to the entire audience.
Q:
I am a federal employee and I have a workers comp case for a repetitive motion injury and I just learned that my employer hired an investigator to follow me and see if I am truly limited. While I understand that they apparently do have the legal right to go this far, does my employer have the legal right to give the investigator my social security number to run a credit and background check on me? And does my employer have the right to run a background check on my significant other, who happens to work at the same place as I do? That seems like a real invasion of his privacy – he is essentially irrelevant to my worker’s comp claim.
A:
Your employer can investigate it. Whether it can release your social security number depends on the routine uses to the Privacy Act as published in the Federal Register. Although I have not looked at those routine uses, I suspect that they probably allow the disclosure. Also, if your IG is looking at this, they have very broad authority.
Bill Bransford is managing partner of Shaw Bransford & Roth PC.
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1 Comment
Looking at your credit report without your permission would be a violation of the FCRA. There is no allowance to view your report to investigate, especially for non criminal activity. The government has a legal right to view it before you are hired but very limited authority after hiring.