EMPLOYEES LOSE APPEAL PROTESTING SURVEILLANCE CAMERA IN RESTROOM

Union workers who have agreed to video surveillance as part of an
employment contract cannot expect privacy even in the lavatory, a
divided federal appeals panel in San Francisco ruled Wednesday.

The "potty privacy" controversy exploded in 1997 when workers at a
Consolidated Freightways truck terminal in the Riverside County
community of Mira Loma discovered video surveillance cameras hidden in
restrooms at the 1,000-employee facility.

Consolidated Freightways, a large trucking company based in Menlo
Park, Calif., said it installed the cameras to try to stop the sale
and use of drugs in the restrooms and aimed the cameras away from
urinals and toilets.

In a 2-1 decision, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a
lower court's dismissal of the invasion-of-privacy claims of
Consolidated Freightways employees.

U.S. District Judge Irving Hill had ruled that the collective
bargaining agreement between Consolidated Freightways and the
Teamsters' Union preempted California privacy laws, which forbid
placing cameras or two-way mirrors in restrooms.

Judges Pamela Ann Rymer and Diarmuid F. O'Scannlain said they did not
condone Consolidated's surveillance but upheld the dismissal of
employees' claims of invasion of privacy and infliction of emotional
distress because the collective bargaining agreement allowed both
video surveillance and drug testing.

But Judge Raymond C. Fisher dissented in part, saying that
Consolidated's restroom surveillance was a clear violation of
California law and that collective bargaining agreements cannot
contract for illegal activities. A Consolidated Freightways spokesman
applauded the dismissal as "ratifying our strong belief that these
matters didn't belong in a court" and were best handled through
existing grievance procedures.

Matthew Taylor, attorney for some of the employee-plaintiffs, said the
ruling "allows Big Brother to assume its corporate guise with
impunity. This affects every union employee in California and probably
the western United States." Taylor said he is evaluating the potential
for appeal.