Again, while we differ on a number of important specifics, we believe that philosophical approach is shared by the Society of Human Resource Management and other employer groups that have been working on this issue. Unfortunately, some employers use investigations as a surveillance tool to deter employees from exercising their rights in the workplace, including enforcing laws such as the Fair Labor Standards Act, and from exercising their rights under the National Labor Relations Act to organize unions. As others have noted, investigations themselves can contribute to workplace discrimination against non-traditional supervisors, or they can be a means by which employers pursue personal vendettas or seek to obtain private information about their employees in general. At the time of the passage of the FCRA, much of the focus in the press was on abusive investigative practices undertaken by Delta Airlines, a largely non-union airline, in interviewing former Pan Am flight attendants who had bee unions members for jobs after Delta bought Pan Am's routes. Under the pretext of investigating allegations or suspicions of theft, product tampering, drug use, racial or sexual harassment, and other illegal conduct, third party investigators gain access to a wide range of information about workers.
Some investigations focus on particular individuals.
Regardless of which type of investigation an employer conducts, much of the information gathered remains unverified, and much of it is the product of coercive and deceptive techniques. Improper third party investigators present a particular threat to workers' rights that is significantly greater than that posed by employer investigations. Professional investigators are adept at mining that wealth of information available on the Internet that can be obtained on individuals. They have the resources and expertise to conduct wide ranging interviews outside the workplace that lie beyond the capabilities of the typical employer. They often have operatives trained to pose as employees for the purpose of collecting information from other employees.