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If you wanted a lie detector test, then don't complain
January 22, 2006 by Ross Runkel at LawMemo
Don't ask your employer to give you a polygraph test and then later claim that giving the test violated the federal Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA).
That's basically what Gary Lee Watson did.
When Watson was discharged for allegedly stealing from the employer, his union suggested to the employer that Watson be returned to his job on the condition that he successfully pass a polygraph test. The employer agreed.
Later Watson sued both his employer and his union claiming a violation of the EPPA, but the courts threw out the suit.
The EPPA provides that (subject to certain exceptions) an employer may not "directly or indirectly ... require, request, suggest, or cause any employee or prospective employee to take or submit to any lie detector test." 29 USC Section 2002(1).
The 11th Circuit held that "when [a] ... polygraph test ... [is] offered to an employee pursuant to a request ... by the employee or his or her agent in order to benefit the employee by providing an opportunity to prove his or her innocence [of a suspected property crime against the employer], then the employer has not violated Section 2002(1)." Watson v. Drummond Co (11th Cir 01/20/2006)
The court also concluded that the union was not an "employer" under the EPPA.
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Editor: Ross Runkel, Professor of Law Emeritus. email Ross@LawMemo.Com, Phone 503-399-8028. Copyright LawMemo, Inc.
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