That's none of your business! On the limits of employer control of employee behaviour outside of work
Matthew Lister (Deakin University )

September 13, 2017, 12:30pm - 2:30pm
University of Melbourne

Meeting Room 651, 6th Floor, North Wing, Arts West Building
Meeting Room 651
Melbourne 3010
Australia

Organisers:

Holly Lawford-Smith
University of Melbourne

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Abstract:

Employers seeking – and being able to – control employee behavior outside of working hours is nothing new.  Pre-employment and on-going drug tests have been common since the 1980s, for example, and in earlier days, employers such as Henry Ford sought to control many aspects of their employees’ lives.  However, several recent developments have extended efforts to control employee behavior into new areas, and with new significance.  Employers have imposed not just requirements against using illegal drugs, but have imposed “no smoking” requirements even outside of working hours.  Employees have been fired for engaging in political speech outside of the workplace, and for posting pictures of themselves engaged in otherwise unremarkable acts such as drinking at a Halloween party on social media sites.  Mandates to improve diet, Body Mass Index (“BMI”) and other aspects of employee health and nutrition suggest an ability to control employees’ eating and exercise habits.  And, employers monitor social media accounts for any potentially “embarrassing” posts, even when they are not connected to the workplace or identified with it.  In this paper, I will argue that there are ethical limits on the controls that employers may put on their employees’ out of work behavior, and that many, although not necessarily all,  of these limits should be enshrined into legal protections which would prevent employers from conditioning employment on the regulations criticized. 

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