Q: Is it legal for a manager to tell my coworker of my child's health?
A coworker approached me at work and told me that a manager made statements to her about my son's health, saying that my child is always sick, Im always late or calling out and that I should have been fired. Besides the fact that the conversation was inappropriate, is this legal to share my personal information with another team member who is not management and does not need this information to complete job function? (I was recently approved for FMLA for my son)
A: While I think this discussion may be inappropriate, from these facts I do not see a violation of the law. There is no indication of discussion of a medical diagnosis, and while this may have been a breach of fiduciary duty by the manager, as employers can owe employees a fiduciary duty, it would not seem to support legal action. There also might have been a violation of your privacy rights, as you had an expectation that the employer would keep such confidential sensitive information from being disclosed to employees who have no basis to be involved. Certainly you should raise these issues with Human Resources.
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