Can They Do That?: Retaking Our Fundamental Rights in the Workplace

Brilliantly lays out the bitter truth: that the American workplace is a dictatorship where workers have few, if any, rights." -Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed

An expose of the shocking ways that companies invade employees' privacy and restrict their freedom.

Is it legal for your employer to fire you for writing a letter to the editor? Or for putting the "wrong" candidate's bumper sticker on your car? If you answered no, prepare to be shocked.

Americans assume that their basic rights, such as privacy and freedom of speech, remain in force when they go to work. But what if your boss checked your personal e-mail to see if you were really working over the weekend? Or fired you after discovering you had a disease?

Workers' rights advocate Lewis Maltby shares dozens of stories of employees who have been fired or harassed unfairly-but legally. Consider:

?A man denied a job at a retail chain for failing a psychological test that probed his sex life, religious beliefs, even his bathroom habits

?A group of women at a storage company with no legal recourse after discovering a hidden camera installed by their manager in the women's restroom

?A longtime employee dismissed for having a beer after work, because his boss believed drinking was a sin

Over the last twenty years, Maltby has heard hundreds of stories just like these. His expose will change the way you think about your workplace. Bosses abuse and take advantage of their employees every day and get away with it. If a worker steals a hundred dollars out of the cash register and gets caught, he will be criminally prosecuted and very possibly sent to prison. If an employer steals a hundred dollars in wages from a worker, or a hundred dollars from every worker in the company, there is virtually no chance of criminal prosecution.

There is a silver lining, however. As Maltby shows, there are steps that we all can take to restore our rights in the workplace.