Do state employees have a right to privacy?

by Julia Rosen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

Or should I ask: Do state employees have to assume that newspapers will put their name, title and salary into a searchable database.  Or what about a more specific question: what is the added public benefit from having names attached to salary and title information?

Why am I asking all of these questions?  Well, the SacBee decided to create a searchable database of state employees' salaries on their website.  Needless to say state employees are upset.  Yesterday SEIU 1000 staged a protest in front of the newspaper's offices.  The leadership presented 3,000 signatures demanding that the database be taken down.  SacBee:

Union President Jim Hard told the protesters that he was "disgusted" by what he described as the paper's "crass commercialism" and "callous disregard" for his members' safety.

"Our union is completely in favor of public access to information regarding the use of their tax money, the pay scales, the classifications, the number of state employees and comparisons in any reasonable fashion to counties, cities and the public sector," Hard said. "But to post my name up there, I'd like The Bee to explain how that helps any public policy of public finance discussion or issue."

There is no significant reason why the need to attach people's names to spread sunshine on the state government.
Some state workers are already feeling the repercussions of the Bee's actions.

The paper's explanations have not satisfied state workers. At Wednesday's rally, Dana Meza, who has worked at the Department of Motor Vehicles for eight years, said that since the salaries were posted "some people actually were called by bill collectors."

Aleta Prudhomme, an employee at the Department of Social Services, said her husband, a correctional officer, once had his identity stolen, and she fears it's going to happen again. "I just don't see how this is really helpful," Prudhomme said of the database.

The paper is arguing that the data has always been available and that the paper is making sure that it is not just accessible by journalists and lawyers.  That may be true, but there is a big difference from people having to request the information through state sunshine law disclosure rules and have it be in a searchable database.  Just because you can do it that does not mean that you should.