Pittsburgh Labor and Employment Attorney Peter Ennis Quoted on Employee Rights in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Article

Peter J. Ennis, a shareholder in the Labor and Employment Section of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney's Pittsburgh office, was quoted in an article, titled "Employees have few rights in the workplace," published in the January 19, 2010, edition of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The article was later picked up by the January 21 edition of the York Daily Record.

Ennis weighed in on the issue of employee rights at the workplace, including an employee's right to privacy. While he agreed that in some cases employers can go overboard with surveillance, he also said in many cases "the reasons set up for surveillance of certain behaviors outside of the job site are legitimate."

"Demanding that Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger wear a helmet when riding a motorcycle may not be too much to ask when an entire organization depends on him," Ennis said.

As for workplace cameras, he said, "In my experience, surveillance is very limited." Mostly what employers are looking for is people selling drugs, he explained.

In the article, Ennis emphasized that in most cases employers are not trying to go after their workers. "There are bad employers, there are bad supervisors, there are bad unions and bad union leaders and bad people," he said, however, most managers do not fall in that category.

Ennis concluded saying that when it comes to workplace issues, there are things employees can do, starting with the most basic, which is to vote. "They can raise their voice, they can say something," he said.