Lawrence Halprin Authors a Law360 Article on Employer Use of Electronic Monitoring

Keller and Heckman Partner Lawrence Halprin authored a Law360 article titled “Employer Use of Electronic Monitoring Is Not An OSHA Issue.” The article addresses why the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) “lacks the authority to regulate electronic monitoring.” 

Electronic monitoring of employee performance, as stated by another Law360 guest article, “is a tool used to determine whether employees are meeting a work pace quota.” This definition, according to Lawrence, “simply is not a recognized hazard.” Lawrence adds, “If, solely for purposes of discussion, the [work pace] quota was found to be so overly demanding as to be unlawful under the OSH Act or comparable law, the remedy — required abatement measure — would be to change the quota, not to regulate or ban electronic monitoring of employee performance.”

Lawrence concludes that “while OSHA recognizes the value in providing guidance on mental stress to employers and employees,” it is also “so far outside OSHA’s traditional sphere of expertise that one would have to conclude it is also outside of OSHA’s regulatory authority.”

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