A Boston firefighter is facing disciplinary action for using the department email system to encourage other personnel to cast votes against the mayor in an online poll. The firefighter also happens to be a union official. The case raises some interesting 1st amendment/privacy issues, along with the spector of electronic eavesdropping in the workplace, collective bargaining, and governmental ethics (yes ethics.... as in misuse of public property for political purposes).
Fire Officers Legal Handbook addresses some of these thorny issues in Chapter 6, not the least of which is that employers must obtain the employees CONSENT before being able to electronically eavesdrop or record their email conversations!!!!! Its not hard to obtain that consent - but it must none-the-less be done BEFORE the employer may being recording or viewing an employee's emails.
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