Employer Disclosing Personal Information About Former Employees

[thesarg_1906]

My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: Texas

My employer makes it a regular habit of sharing the personal financial details about former employees, like their salary, when people call to verify income, what he thinks he knows about their debt situation, who they got loans from, how much their child support is, when they had wages garnished plus other very personal items that he only knows because there were times when these details had to be shared with him if they missed work. This concerns me because I have medical issues and I don't want my personal medical issues or financial issues being shared with the staff if I decide to leave the company in the future. I also have friends (former employees) who wouldn't want their information shared with everyone in the company. Is it legal for an employer to openly share with current employees the personal information that was given to them in confidence or not given and found out because he looks through everything that could potentially have been left by a person?

[cbg]

It is absolutely legal to provide salary information. I'll have to let Patty address some of the other issues you mention.

However, it is NOT legal to provide medical information. Employees really do not have very much privacy in the workplace, but one place in which they do, is with regards to medical information being disclosed in a reference check.

For those who will then come back to me and say, but cbg, in such and such a post you said that employers are not subject to HIPAA, I'll respond that they aren't. Few employers are subject to HIPAA, and for those who are, only information obtained through the self insured group policy is considered PHI under HIPAA.

But before there ever was a HIPAA, there was the ADA, and the ADA also has some restrictions on the release of information to outside parties. While it would not apply in all cases, I would not want to be the test case to see what did and what did not in the situation the poster describes.

[PattyPA]

It isn't illegal to provide any of the financial information. Having said that, though, I'd be up one side and down the other on these people. One of the most unprofessional ideas I've ever heard of.

Who exactly at the company is giving out this information?