Location: Missouri
Last week while I was out of state on vacation my shop boss went into my toolbox (I left it open for other techs if they needed a tool) found my notebook I keep track of my work in, and rifled through it to find something that he would not elaborate on.
My googling has led me to believe this is illegal, given there was no suspicion of stolen items, the search was not consensual, and it was a search for and of the BOOK.
My question is if anyone has a specific Missouri government document I can have a link to or something that I, with my limited brain, could not find.
I am currently holding the employee contract I signed to compare and search for stipulations about toolbox searches. Any help is much appreciated.
Comments
What’s your end goal here?
> My googling has led me to believe this is illegal
Can you expand on that? Because it’s not like he’s the police and you’re being criminally charged with something. You’re not going to find a law against this, nor will any paperwork probably mention it.
What is the outcome here? Termination?
You won’t likely dins anything toolbox specific but you can look up rules around general employee property searches and right to privacy.
Its grey because they are typically allowed to search assuming they have a reason to, personal property has more protection than company property, but since you stated you “left it open” that also makes it more complicated. Did they have a reason? Was it just sitting there and the flipped through it? Etc etc.