What are my rights to video evidence that was taken in my truck by my employer’s camera?
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What are my rights to video evidence that was taken in my truck by my employer’s camera?
I was just fired today from my job as a truck driver. The company has drive cameras installed on the trucks. It’s 1 unit, mounted on the windshield, with 2 cameras, 1 facing outward through the windshield, the other facing inward watching the driver which I find creepy as hell. The company saw on the interior facing camera what they perceived to be me texting while driving illegal under FMCSA regulations. I was not. I was changing the song on my MP3 player which is not illegal. You can even hear the song change in the video. I am filing a grievance with the union on this matter and requested a copy of the video from the employer. The response I received was this,
Asked on March 22, 2016 under Employment Labor Law, Colorado
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 8 years ago | Contributor
It is their video camera and their video footage, and you agree (implicitly) to be videoed when you work by continuing to work (not quiting) when they started videoing. For all those reasons--they own the camera and footage; your implicit consent to be videoed--they have no obligation to share it with you unless you use legal process. That is, if you file a lawsuit against your employer, such as for wrongful termination, during the lawsuit, you could use legal process (like "document" production requests--videos are documents for this purpose) to get access to the video. Of course, getting access to the video does not guaranty you'll win...for example, say that you can show you were changing the MP3 player: if it still appears that you were driving distractedly (paying attention to the player, not the road), they could most likely terminate you for that reason, too.
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