I recently had to terminate someone for falsifying their resume. I sent out an e-mail stating that this person was terminated for discrepancies discovered during their background check. My reason for doing so was to stop the rumor mill from grinding. However I have been chastised for violating the ex-employee's right to privacy. What right to privacy? What rights or laws are there for employees, other than HIPAA?

Rita Risser replies:

There is a general right to privacy under state law that you cannot unreasonably publicize private facts about an individual. E-mails (or memos) such as you describe have been upheld if they are sent to people who have some reason to know; that is, if sent to the department of co-workers, but not to the whole company. In your case, there are only 50 employees in the company, so everyone knew this person and company-wide is fine.

Another issue is what you say. Because you said, "discrepancies in background check," that might make people think the person had a criminal history, rather than if you said, "discrepancies in resume." However, now that's it done, you should stand by your position as being reasonable. Good luck.