Читать книгу Employment Law Update - Jonathan Ingber - Страница 59

On September 29, 2011, the EEOC filed suit against The Original Honey Baked Ham (HBH) of Georgia, Inc. on the basis that a female manager and approximately 20 other female employees at its Colorado stores had been subjected to repeated sexual comments, innuendo, and inappropriate touching by their regional manager, and that several female employees had been disciplined or terminated for complaining about their treatment. The EEOC requested back pay and compensatory and punitive damages on behalf of the class of female employees, and is seeking a permanent injunction against the company, prohibiting it from discriminating in the future, and requiring all managers and human resources personnel to undergo training in anti-discrimination law, including best practices for identifying, investigating, and eliminating sexual harassment from the workplace.

In September 2012, HBH filed a motion with the federal court seeking to compel each of the plaintiffs to produce their Facebook passwords, text messages, and other social media passwords. In support of this motion, HBH submitted copies of the manager's Facebook pages that discussed her expectations for a financial recovery in the suit, her positive outlook on her life after her employment was terminated, and her self-described “sexual aggressiveness.” HBH alleged that many of the former employees had used social media and Facebook to communicate about the lawsuit, and that those communications could lead to the discovery of admissible evidence. Based on privacy objections, the EEOC and the former employees opposed any effort to cause them to produce their social media and Facebook passwords.

You are the judge assigned to the case. Should the manager and the other employees and former employees have to produce their Facebook and social media passwords? Why or why not?