Can I sue my employer for providing personal background info to my co-workers?
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Can I sue my employer for providing personal background info to my co-workers?
My manager went and told co-workers that I was a sex offender after I spoke with him in private.
Asked on February 19, 2016 under Employment Labor Law, North Carolina
Answers:
M.D., Member, California and New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 8 years ago | Contributor
The fact is that your criminal history record is a matter of public record. Therefore disclosing it to your co-workers, while unprofessinal, was not illegal. This is true whether or not they were aware of your criminal record at the time. If your manager had disclosed a medical condition, then that would be legally actionable has a violation of HIPPA. The only way you could sue here is if during the course of revealing your sex offender status, some other comments were made about you that consituted defamation. However, without more details it's hard to advise further. At this point, you may want to go over the specific facts of your situation directly with a local employment law attorney.
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