Re: Employer opening mail

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“In Vernars v. Young, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals stated that
private individuals, in their place of work, "have a reasonable
expectation that their personal mail will not be opened and read by
unauthorized persons."

“Most states allow a citizen to bring an action in tort for breach of
right to privacy. For example, in Vernars v. Young, 539 F.2d 966 (3rd
Cir. 1976) the Court held that an employee whose personal mail had
been opened and read by a fellow corporate officer had stated a cause
of action for invasion of his privacy rights.”

In contrast to
the Federal statue mentioned above however it appears that a real-life
scenario is quite different than the cut-and-dried law suggests; that
being that an employer’s authority to open a package addressed to his
employee depends (among other things perhaps) on the expectations of
the employee, the balance of interests, and whether or not an
INTENTIONAL invasion of privacy or obstruction of delivery occurred:

“The issue of whether this is lawful depends upon various facts.
Courts have generally recognized that opening an employee's mail that
is clearly marked "personal" constitutes an invasion of privacy by the
employer under state law.

On 4/06/05, Myra wrote:
> I contact the Postal Inspector and he confirmed that it is NOT illegal for
> your employer to open mail that comes to the company. It didn't matter if it
> was marked personal, if it didn't have the companies name, or any other
> variable. A company policy is the only rule that would be broken. No laws.
>
> n 4/04/05, Myra wrote:
>> I thought that it was illegal!
>> I have a manager who opens my business mail and any "thank you" letters,
>> etc. from customers and disposes of them regularly. He also disposes of
>> invitations from customers, newsletters, etc even though they are important
>> to my position to receive them. I have even asked him (as have the owners)
>> to not open my mail!
>>
>> Are you sure that it is not illegal????
>>
>> Thanks in advance!
>>
>>
>> On 3/25/05, Matthew wrote:
>>> On 2/16/05, Carol wrote:
>>>> On 2/09/05, sharwinston wrote:
>>>>> No!
>>>>> Your employer can open any mail addressed to you if it comes to your
>>>>> employer's place of business -- no matter whose name is on it.
>>>>> You have no right to have your personal mail received at your place of
>>>>> employment.
>>>>>
>>>>> My$0.02: I can't imagine why you would have your personal mail come to
>>>>> your place of business anyway. Get a post office box. The cost is
>>>>> minimal.
>>>>>
>>>>> On 2/01/05, Carol wrote:
>>>>>> And is it against the law for an employer to open mail that is
>>>>>> addressed by name to an employee?
>>>> Thank you for your response. I wasn't, however, talking about PERSONAL
>>>> mail. I was talking about work mail that's addressed specifically to me.
>>>
>>> This is strange. My current employer opens all mail sent to our place of
>>> business, regardless of whom it is addressed to, or who it is from. I
>>> find this practice highly unusual since my former employer (a massive oil
>>> corporation) made a big to-do about managers NOT opening ANY mail that was
>>> addressed to one of their employees. This policy was stricly enforced, no
>>> matter how 'junkie' the piece of mail may appear to be. I thought that it
>>> was a postal felony to open any piece of mail addressed to a specific
>>> individual. I'm interested in learning more about this. THANX