Can attendance records be posted?

Recently, the Production Manager published a monthly calendar on the plant bulletin board which identifies employees who were not at work during the month due to absence, vacation, and jury duty. Also, the General Manager is considering posting the 10 worst cases of attendance.

Rita Risser's Response:

This area of the law is very gray. Other experts may disagree with me, but here is my analysis.

There are a number of possible theories -- let's see if any apply. The first is invasion of privacy or confidentiality. What is protected as private? Only information that is not generally knowable. Anyone can look and see that these people are not at work. Therefore, absence record is generally knowable and is not private information.

Similarly, the reason for the absence generally is known. Employees call in sick, plan vacations, and get called for jury duty. Anyone who asks is told the reason for being gone. The information does not seem to be private.

Another theory would be intentional infliction of emtional distress. Picking out the top 10 offenders doesn't seem an invasion of privacy, since anyone could figure it out from the posted sheets. But could it be intentional infliction of emotional distress? Only if the conduct is so outrageous that it is beyond the bounds of a civilized society. I don't think posting the top 10 is that outrageous.

A third theory is based on the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Family Medical Leave Act. If people are out due to their disabilites or due to a realtive's serious health condition, putting them in the top 10 could constitute harassment on the basis of disability or family leave. However, the posting alone is probably not sufficiently severe or pervasive to constitute harassment; there would have to be many more harassing or discriminatory acts.

Looking at it from a strictly "good management" practice, it is true that usally these records are kept confidential. On the other hand, I see nothing wrong with management trying to spur good attendance through a little competition. In fact, many companies have perfect attendance awards, and this is the flip side of the same coin.

It also can help employees, because they can see if they are being treated consistently. If not, there may be other potential claims.

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