I work full time for a company, and I also do a small amount of consulting work in my spare time for another company. My full-time employer found out that I was doing consulting work from a third-party, and called my other place of work to ask about: the exact nature of my work in projects, what hours I worked for them, and specific days I had been working to see if I had used sick time to work for another company. Is this legal?
Rita Risser Chai Replies:
Your full-time employer does have the right to investigate whether you are misrepresenting your requests for sick leave. The information they asked the other company about—the exact nature of your work and the hours and days you worked—is not considered private information because lots of people (your co-workers) know it. If your full-time employer discovers that you took sick leave and worked for the other company, they can terminate your employment for falsifying company records. Good luck.
Posted 10-20-2020
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