Quote:
|
Originally Posted by ShaniFaye
The company policy we sign when we agree to be an employee only states they may search your vehicle, when it is on their property.
I guess if my company is aching to be tested in court so are a LOT of them. Its my impression the person that owns the property has full rights to declare no firearms.
|
In spite of how it appears, I'm not trying to be argumentative here. I just have problems with that particular policy. Like the following:
Even the feds, when they have a search warrant, have to specify what they're searching FOR. That's why some of their findings get tossed out of court. If the warrant says "drugs," they can't mention in court that they found, for example, child pornography.
So when your company searches a car, what are they searching for? What if you're a union organizer, and they find a list of people at your company who've agreed to join? What if they find one of the magazines you posed for in your "wild youth"-- can they fire you for "conduct unbecoming to the company?" What about that half-empty bottle of wine from last night's party? Or that letter with the job offer from a competitor?
What if they find a prescription for an anti-cancer medicine in your car? Can they find an excuse to let you go, or not promote you, since you might not be around?
Of course they can--they just won't admit that they're doing it.
Also, a judge has to sign a search warrant. What if your boss doesn't like you, and wants to promote his friend into your job? What's to prevent him from searching your car? What's to prevent him from planting something?
What has also not been mentioned yet is that an employee can not sign away their rights. As an example, even if I get an employee to agree in writing that I don't have to pay him or her overtime, it won't hold up in court. And I'll be in a lot of financial trouble.
I think I would do one of two things at a company such as yours (provided I was either a lawyer or had the financial wherewithal to proceed). I'd either not sign the agreement, and tell a labor attorney about it when I wasn't hired, or plant something in my car resembling one of the concerns I listed above. A medical history, or whatever. That would be a strong basis for an invasion of privacy claim.
I say that as an employer, too. While I despise the basis for most lawsuits brought against employers, I feel strongly that an employer has no business searching your car, unless he has damn good reason to believe there's unauthorized company property in it.
I can understand someone feeling differently, but there would be hell to pay if someone searched my car without that basis.