Is it legal for my manager to open my paycheck when it is sealed and has only my name on it?
Question Details:
About 3 weeks ago I picked my paycheck up from the desk in our office and it had already been opened. I questioned my manager about it and he told me he didn't know anything about it. I then called our main office to ask if anyone knew why it was opened and the owner was very upset. He informed me that he would speak with my manager about it and later told me that my manager admitted to opening it because he was just curious how much I made. Can I take any legal action against my manager, and if so, where should I start?
This is an invasion of your privacy, but it is not something you can really pursue in court. You don't have more than minimal damages here, so all you could hope to accomplish would be to get an injunction, a court order telling your manager not to do it again or he'd be held in contempt. I really do not think this is worth doing.
There's a good possibility that the cost of defending your lawsuit, if you brought it, would fall on the company, not the manager himself, and if you actually won a money judgment, the company would have to pay it. I don't think you want to do this, unless you are very sure that you are far too valuable to the company to be replaced.
I doubt that you really need the injunction, as well. If your company's owner was upset when he heard about this, you can be sure that the conversation he had when he learned the details was not a pleasant one for your manager, and I think you can be confident that it won't happen again.
