Life is full of paradoxes: Employees of the National Labor Relations Board in Buffalo, New York are upset that they will not have privacy locks installed on their new office doors.
The employees are represented by The National Labor Relations Board Union, Local 3, which had sought privacy locks for employees’ office doors in the Board’s new building. Office doors in an older building contained privacy locks.
The union claims that the locks increase productivity by not permitting untoward interruptions of employees’ work. In addition, the locks help to prevent thefts. And because Buffalo has some of the most severe winters in the US, the employees may want to change out of burdensomely heavy winter clothing into lighter office wear. The locks, according to their union, provide the necessary privacy for those who choose to undress and dress, undress and dress.
In such circumstances, cabanas, rather than locks, might be more appropriate.
The new building provides office space for other governmental agencies and so has extensive security. As a result, the NLRB claims the locks unnecessary.
I agree with The Board that employees do not have an inherent right to privacy in offices. They are, after all, working for their employers who have a right to learn how employees are spending their time. In addition, if the Board were to install locks, it could be a precedent for installing locks in all Board offices throughout the US, which would cost many hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The Federal Service Impasses Panel has agreed with me that the employees will not have locks on their doors, and they further stated that the NLRB provides sufficient security so that the locks are, indeed, unnecessary.
