Permitting employees to bring camera phones to work can carry hidden legal risks.  

But should you tackle this issue aggressively or trust your staff members to do the right thing?  Every employer wants to create an environment where staff members feel trusted by management. But there’s also the need to stay protected legally, and it isn’t always easy to balance the two.

The cell phone issue is in particular delicate since most employees carry them nowadays, and improper use at work is a non-issue for the vast majority. But there are always several bad apples in every bunch.

Growing number of complaints

There has been an explosion of lawsuits – and complaints to management – about workers taking inappropriate photos at work with their cell phone cameras.

Most cases revolve around embarassing or expliclit photos of coworkers (sometimes but not always posted on the Internet or e-mailed to others in the office). However, a handful of lawsuits have arisen from staff members taking photos of confidential documents or other internal information.

As most benefits and HR veterans would tell you, the most valuable benefit an organization can offer its workers is a workplace where they feel trusted and valued. In contrast, it only takes one “joke” gone too far to stir up a hornet’s nest of trouble.  And no firm is immune from this risk.

Three options

One step every company ought to take is circulating a memo or having a face-to-face meeting with staff members about the need to restrict camera phone use at work, says labor lawyer William Hannum.

This is the time to answer questions and make clear that the policy is a matter of a legal concern, not a case of Big Brother watching over employees’ shoulders. for added legal protection, you might want to create a formal camera phone policy to be written employee handbooks.

Some businesss have gone so far as to take the step of banning camera phone (or personal cell phone) use at work and prohibiting individuals  from posting personal photos or videos from company computers.

Nevertheless, these policies are difficult to enforce and run the risk of alienating the majority of workers who use the devices responsibly.

As an alternative, several firms that have not banned camera phones have had employees sign a policy that gives managers permission to review photos or videos on the phone when there’s a complaint. When you go down either of these routes, remember –

• The policy ought to be enforced consistently

• your policy must spell out specific steps for filing and assessing  a complaint, and

• The policy should obviously spell out the disciplinary steps for violations.

The enforcement aspect is especially tricky. In cases where the phones are corporation property, companys obviously have the right to control non-work use – which includes requiring employees to turn over the contents stored on the phone in cases of suspected abuse. Employees have no legal expectation of privacy in such cases.  

However, there’s a slippery slope when the phone is an employee’s property.  As a rule of thumb, corporations normally have the right to inspect the contents as they pertain to alleged inappropriate behavior within the workplace.

Where it gets tricky is dealing with behavior that takes places on the employee’s private time, but overlaps with the workplace (e.g., staff members go out socializing at a bar after work, and potentially embarassing camera phone photos get spread around the workplace). Legal specialists caution companys to tread very carefully in these cases.

Where does your organization stand?

Does your organization have – or is considering a policy on employee camera phones? Do you think such policies are workable or even appropriate?

In my conversations with attendees at the SHRM conference in Chicago, HR and benefits managers appear to be divided on the issue.