Can employee be asked to provide names of spouse and children? 03-01-2006

I am being asked to provide (to my management) and collect (from the people I manage) home address, telephone number, spouse's name, and children's names (if any). Is this legal? I understand the need to provide emergency contact information via proper HR channels. However, I am concerned that this is an awful lot of private information that is being collected outside of the traditional HR channels.

Rita Risser replies:

Home address, and the names of spouse and children do not seem to be job related, and thus it would be an invasion of privacy to require employees to provide this information. However, management can ask employees if they want to voluntarily provide it.

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