Privacy Issues in the Community College Workplace

Today, the term “telematics” more commonly refers to automation in automobiles, including integrated hands-free cell phones, GPS navigation, wireless communications, and automated driving assistance systems, including General Motor’s OnStar system. 476 Vehicle telematics may be used to track and monitor a vehicle or a fleet of vehicles, recover stolen vehicles, provide automatic collision notification and provide in-vehicle early warning prevention alerts. 477 Additionally, built-in vehicle telematics systems can be used to identify electronic or vehicle maintenance problems and provide information to the manufacturer and owner. 478 While a public agency is allowed to track the use of vehicles it owns or leases, it should implement this technology only where it has a legitimate business reason for doing so, and in a manner that puts employees on notice that they will be monitored. This should help the public agency avoid any arguments by employees that it is violating their privacy rights. Public agency employers should implement written policies that inform employees that their use of the agency vehicle will be monitored. The written policy should also discuss some of the business reasons for monitoring employees, such as measuring productivity, locating stolen vehicles, providing aid to vehicles that break down, or ensuring that employees are following their routes or assignments. Disciplinary actions by employers that have a “significant effect on the wages, hours and other terms of the conditions of employment” are subject to the mandatory bargaining requirements of the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act. 479 Therefore, employee discipline would likely be subject to mandatory bargaining to the extent it results from information obtained via tracking technology on agency-owned or leased vehicles, including discipline for misuse of the equipment, inappropriate use of time, and speeding. 480

While GPS tracking is now widely available through cellular telephones, employers should not use it. The Penal Code prohibits such tracking,

“No person or entity in this state shall use an electronic tracking device to determine the location or movement of a person.” 481

In addition to a violation of the Penal Code, employee tracking with the use of cellular telephones or similar devices may raise employee privacy claims under the California and United States Constitutions.

Privacy Issues in the Community College Workplace ©2021 (c) Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 154