Expectation of Privacy Missouri

[bassman1282]

May a private employer institute a policy which states that Desks, cubicles, work areas, etc may be searched at any time for any reason, or is this too broad? How about the search of company owned vehicles and privately owned vehicles on private property? I know the reasonable expectation of privacy analysis but I do not know the rules regarding these specific situations. Thanks for any help.

[DAW]

Not my area of expertise, but:
- The employer's right to look at their own property is likely to be much better then the right to look at someone else's property. I would say that unless someone actually wrote a law saying otherwise, that the employee has no expectation of privacy in regards to the use of someone else's property. And not your question, but smart employees never use their employer's computers or email for non-work related matters. And they should be be very careful what they use their employer's cars for.
- Personal cars are likely a whole different issue. I can see the employer having no inherent right to search someone else's car. I can also however see the employer having a legal right to fire an employee for refusing to have their car, purse, briefcase, person searched. The right to search is not the same thing legally as the right to terminate employment.

[Morgana]

I dont know your state. If its one of the ones which recently allowed employees to have guns in company parking lots (if open to the public), there may be issues about searches and weapons.

I'm trying to remember what the attorney said but we could no longer just have a search of an employee's car without permission because of the gun law.

If you arent in a state that has that, you can skip it. I'll try to dig out that information if you are in a state that has one of the guns in parking lot laws.

The company owns the desks, offices etc and has the right to search. I wouldnt want to just say that any manager can search just because they want to, but searching for a specific reason to me makes more sense.