My employer bans staff from discussing health matters, or telling co-workers that you're sick. Is this legal?

Shane

In agreement with Judy and RWA000. Not illegal and the company can pose any policy they wish as long as they are not in violation of any state or federal laws. My second to last place of employment had the same policy for two reasons:

1 - Favoritism. One employee who was out due to cancer had there position held for them for nearly 5 months! Then another employee who became ill (not cancer related) was terminated when they did not return after there 12 week leave under FMLA. He turned around and got an attorney, sued, and won.

2 - HR or management is never suppose to discuss employee illnesses with anyone. Who is to say the actual person who is ill didn't pass it around to there close co-workers and then turns around and says the company is in violation of HIPAA laws? It is definitely a he said--she said situation, but certainly not one worth taking.

Overall, it is best to have such a policy. I sincerely hope all goes well (my father has been battling cancer for a little over 2 years and will soon start radiation.) But, you knew this policy was in effect and not sure what you were thinking that the policy would not apply to you.

Judy

It isn't illegal, but it's weird.

Good luck - I hope your chemo is/was successful.

rwa000

if this is there rules than you have to abide by them there is nothing illegal about what they want from their employees, companies also have rules about discussing salaries as well and people can and have been terminated for it.

hr4me

This would not be an illegal policy for a company to have in place. As long as they enforce it equally for all employees they are fine.

There are a couple of issues as to why a company would put this in place actually. There is the issue of your privacy. If one of those co-workers repeats what you tell them, and it goes around the company, your privacy has been breached. There is also a problem for the managers who make hiring and promotional decisions. Did they know this information about your health before making the decision? Did it affect their decision about whether to promote you or not?

Cheese Sauce

its called freedom of speech! If you are in a union or something like that, i'd speek to them about it, cos it sounds completly out of order. Good luck and i hope you make a full recovery.

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