So.. there's some interesting news going on in the company I work at. We are a medium size company with a staff of about 60 people. I'm not a manager but I am a family friend with most of them so I always get to hear about news that others don't hear.

But anyways..

Just recently an iPhone 3GS was stolen from a supervisors desk while he was at lunch. So the only thing to do is the search lockers to see if anyone could have taken it. The upper boss is the only one with the locker keys and agrees to do a search. Anyways yada yada yada, lockers were searched and no phone was found.

So later on in the week there were 2 people who were super pissed that they had there lockers searched because they claimed that they had there bags and purses checked. The upper boss says only lockers were checked and nothing personal was looked into. So they have decided to sue the company over this matter and call it an invasion of privacy saying that it's there personal locker and it cannot be checked without consent of the owner. The upper boss claims its company property and he has the right to check when deemed necessary.

It all seems rediculous to me that a person was simply just looking for his 500 dollar phone and has ended up in this mess. So what do you guys think? Do you think this will affect the entire company? I certainly would never sue over such a dinky matter as it would make me a black sheep. Who would trust me if they felt like I would sue them over anything just to make a quick dime?

 

companies get sued for frivolous crap all the time. your company will waste some money on a lawyer, or they'll settle for some undisclosed sum.. i wouldn't worry about it.

as for the people doing the suing, they're obviously hard up on cash and looking to make a buck.

 

Fixed

 

The two employees suing will probably be the first two let go at the next downsizing. Karma is a bitch.

 

What is company WRITTEN policy on searching personal property while on the company premises? If there is no requirement for employees to allow such a search, they have a case (a big one). If there is a requirement and they know this and signed off on it, they're out of luck.

Either way, if nothing was found in their personal effects, they have nothing to worry about and shouldn't care.

 

This won't go very far. This will only end in 2 employees losing their jobs.

 

if they let them go over this they're asking for another suit... for wrongful termination

again i'm not a lawyer.

 

Depends on if its an at will state, and if thats the case a company can fire without reason.

 

But how much are these guys going to make over this anyways? How can an amount be determined over this crap?

If they are indeed to get fired down the road I would be happy. These people aren't team players anyways. I myself have had my share of issues with these fools.

 

there are still laws in place that can't be violated. at-will doesn't completely protect against wrongful termination suits. Example: Anyone can pull the race card... and it becomes up to the company to defend their reasons for firing the person in order to prove it was not race related. Go to a big company and ask their HR dept what you have to go through to fire someone... it's a lot of paperwork, even in an at-will employment state, because they want to cover their asses to prevent lawsuits.

i don't know if firing due to a lawsuit against the company qualifies as violating a law, may depend on state, but there are 'whistleblower' laws in place to protect people who go against their company... maybe this would qualify

once again, not a lawyer... may be talking out my ass... yada yada