Is it legal for an employer to open mail personally addressed to an employee?

Question

By the way, its not personal postal mail that is being received, it is all work related but addressed to me. Is there any actual evidence that says it is illegal? even if it is all work related?

Answer 1

if you are using the employer mail server, i dont think so, as that mail shouldn't be used for private matters. same way your employer can search trough your locker.

if you mean postal mail, no, thats illegal and you can press charges, it's a serious offence to open others postal mail

Answer 2

A difficult question.

Personally I believe post send to your work address should be work related and your employer has the right to open it. Mail marked as private and/or confidential should not be opened by someone else. The only exception should be when the mail is received in your absence (you already left the company, or you would not be reachable in due time).

However those are my personal believes, the law is something else. Employees have a reasonable believe that they are entitled to some privacy on the workplace. The extent of this right to privacy is determined by the policies in place AND THE ACTUAL BEHAVIOUR OF THE EMPLOYER.

A written policy that is not followed in practice is not relevant.

Example: assume A works with company XYZ, he has an assitant B and his manager is C. XYZ's policy state that all mail is delivered to the addressee's office and that the addressee is responsible for the opening of it. The policy also states that all correspondance received by XYZ when the addressee is not available can be opened by a manager.
A has asked his assistant B to open all his post except private and confidential which he opens himself.

A has no reasonable belief that his privacy is protected when it comes to his general post, because all this post is opened by his assistant.
A has a reasonable belief that his private and confidential post is protected. However he knows that his manager C will open all his post after he left the company.

This is valid for the USA. I refer to an interesting court order concerning e-mails (not regular snail mail) send by someone on the military on military computers. The legal argrumentation is based on the right of privacy (trumping practical issues related to electronic mail) so I don't see why it cannot be applied to regular snail mail. Note that there was a strict written policy that e-mails can be read by the employer (which happens to be DoD).

Answer 3

Yes, It is reasonable for an employer to assume that all mail received at the company's office is relating to that business.Many letters may have an individuals name on the envelope,but that would be because the incoming letter was a reply to a previous one sent by that person from the company.There would be no way that the employer would know in advance that the letter was personal,unless the envelope was marked as being private and personal,and in which case it should not have been addressed to the office at all.A lot of companies do not allow private mail to be sent to company premises..

Answer 4

Interesting range of opinions ..

I would say 'yes' - EVERYTHING sent to the Company 'addresses' - i.e. including Company email addresses - is the property of the Company.

The Company would normally have a Policy that prohibits other employees opening mail marked as 'Private & Confidential', howewever this would not apply to your Manager.

After you have left the Company your last Manager would open all mail addressed to you and decide to discard it, return it to sender or forward it to the last address you notified to HR.

Most Companies take a dim view of employees using Company adddress (including eMail) for personal mail and you could get Offical Warnings for doing so.

Answer 5

If the address on the envelope is the address of the company, and if the envelope is not marked "Strictly Private and Confidential", then yes, your employer can open it. If the contents of the enveople were personal, why on earth did you not have them sent to your home address?

Answer 6

If the mail was addressed to the company's address, the employer has the right to open the mails.

Answer 7

Arguable, it would depend on how the company deals with mail. Lots of smaller companies use a secretary to open all the mail.

If it was adressed to you, at the companies address then they would be able to claim certain rights, unless it was marked "confidential for the personal attention of" and then your name

Answer 8

If the company name is on there then they can consider it to be their mai.

You should not have personal mail sent to your work address.

I run a business and I consider any mail coming into the business as belonging to the business.

What have you got to hide? Are you trying to comit a fraud against your employer. They trust you so you should trust them.

Answer 9

Yes it is legal. As an employee you are a representative of the company, and therefore your mail is their mail.

Answer 10

It's illegal to open anyones elses mail