Employees' right to privacy when using electronic communications has become a major workplace issuewithin the last decade. What constitutes an invasion of privacy? When does an employer have the right to monitor electronic communications? And does monitoring bring up the Orwellian image of Big Brother?

The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) of 1986 is the only federal statute that deals directly with the interception of e-mail. The ECPA was enacted to extend an earlier legislation's protection against the unauthorized access of wire and oral communications to include electronic communications. Although the Act doesn't expressly mention e-mails, courts have interpreted the term "electronic communications" to include emails.

The ECPA does not, however, guarantee an employee's right to email privacy in the workplace. There are three specific instances when an employee's protection under the ECPA does not apply:

The Consent Exception - Section 2511(2)(d) indicates that an interception of an electronic
communication is considered legal if the person doing the intercepting is a party to the communication, or if one of the parties involved in the communication consents. The only exception to this proviso is if the purpose of intercepting the communication is to use it to commit a crime or tort. If an employer asks their employees to sign an employment agreement stating that their electronic communications will be monitored, the agreement will nullify the protection of the ECPA.


The Provider Exception - Section 2511(2)(a)(i) allows an officer, employee, or agent of a provider of wire or electronic communication service, whose equipment is used in the transmission of an electronic communication, to intercept, disclose, or use that communication in the normal course of employment if that person is involved in an activity which impacts upon the normal course of operations or upon the protection of their property rights. This means that intercepting emails to conduct quality checks is permissible as is intercepting them if you believe an employee is "stealing" the service by sending emails to friends on company time.


The Business Extension Exception - Section 2510(5)(a) exception also covers interception done in the ordinary course of business. It is similar in intent to the provider exception.

What all of these exceptions boil down to is that employers are justified in intercepting email messages as long as they have a valid business reason for doing so. However, if the business takes physical action to protect the privacy of email by installing a system that allows messages to be marked as confidential or by using passwords; or if the business tells employees that their email is private, the employer's right to intercept may be considered voided unless one of the above stated exceptions can be proven.

Although there are still accusations that intercepting email is an outright invasion of a worker's privacy even though the message may be written on company time and using company equipment, intercepting emails is becoming increasingly necessary. As the number of employees who sue because of harassment that occurred via email increases, businesses will find that limiting risk will depend upon knowing when you can legally intercept.

 

Severe weather can produce strong winds that can seriously damage your home and threaten your family's safety. Unpredictable wind gusts can change direction and speed quickly and threaten the integrity of a building's structure. During high winds storms, flying debris can prove lethal.

By maintaining a "tight seal", keeping the outside wind from getting into your home, you may be able to keep your home safe from this type of damage and reduce the possibility of someone getting injured.

Structure

The following items can reduce the chance of your home being lifted off its foundation by providing uplift resistance:

• Anchor bolts with heavy-gauge, square bolt washers can be installed during new home construction or added in existing homes to connect the floor construction to the foundation.
• Plywood or OSB (oriented strand board) can connect the wall and floor components if properly nailed and installed.
• Metal bracing connecting roof trusses or rafters to the wall framing.

Roof

Sheathing should be properly sized and nailed to comply with applicable building codes. Install underlayment material, such as asphalt-saturated felt. Provide separate, secondary water infiltration protection by sealing roof deck joints with a self-adhering modified roofing underlayment (thin rubber/asphalt sheets with peel and stick undersides located beneath the roof covering).

Roofing products with high wind resistance are available. Discuss with a contractor what measures can be taken to ensure the installation of your roof will be completed with high winds in mind. Insist they use hotdipped, galvanized nails instead of staples to attach asphalt shingles.

Windows

To protect against flying debris, windows and glass doors can be fitted with impact-resistant laminated glass or covered with impact-resistant shutters.

Entry Doors

Solid wood or hollow metal doors are more wind resistant and are better equipped to handle wind pressure and flying debris.

Reinforce protection of entry doors by:

• Making sure your doors have at least three hinges and a deadbolt security lock with a minimum bolt throw of at least one inch.
  
• Consider not using double-entry doors, but if you do, install head and foot bolts on the inactive door of double-entry doors.
  
• Since double-entry doors fail when surface bolts break at the header trim or threshold, check connections at both places. The surface bolt should extend through the door footer and through the threshold into the sub floor.

Garage Doors

Garage doors are especially vulnerable to damage during high winds, unless your doors are properly braced.

• If building a new home, consider installing horizontally braced, singlewide garage doors instead ofdouble overhead doors.
  
• For existing homes, check with your garage door manufacturer for availability of retrofit bracing kits.
  
• Garage door panels, especially for doublewide doors, may require both horizontal and vertical bracing to ensure stability.

Safe Rooms

It is a good idea to have a room in your home to go to in the event of a high wind storm. If your home has a basement consider constructing a safe room, but if this is not possible then stay on the ground floor. A safe room is constructed with reinforced floors, walls and ceilings and can be designed for both new and existing homes. It will provide you with a safe haven during a major storm.

Manufactured Homes

Manufactured homes are especially vulnerable during high winds since they are not built on a permanent foundation. While tie-downs can help they secure the frame, not the entire house and they can also weaken over time leaving the home susceptible to damage. The home's foundation-to-wall or wall-to-roof connections may be compromised in the wind. Failure in either of these areas could result in a complete loss of the home. A safe alternative might be a community storm shelter or other permanent structure to ensure your safety.

As legal contracts, insurance policies contain a lot of "fine print". With long-term care policies, the fine print can be particularly baffling, because there are so many variables. It's important to understand these provisions, however, because they determine your coverage. This article should help you become more familiar with the variety of provisions found in these policies.

Benefits: Policies differ in the care for which they pay. Some limit benefits to services provided in nursing homes; some cover both nursing home and home care; others pay only for adult day care centers or other community facilities. Many insurers cover custodial care only if it's provided in a skilled or intermediate nursing facility; the policy description of such facilities may include the type of supervision, size of the facility, type of care provided, and level of licensing. (Facilities licensed by a state to provide custodial care may or may not conform to the policy definition.) If the policy covers home care, it will describe what care is covered. For example, some policies pay for home care only if licensed professionals (not family members) provide the care.

Maximum benefit: Some policies define your maximum benefit on a per day basis, while others define it on a per week basis. What difference does it make? Let’s say your policy uses the per day definition and you select $120 per day as your benefit. On Monday, you pay someone $40 to help you with personal hygiene and your policy covers this expense. The next day, you receive care from a registered nurse at a cost of $200; you will receive your per day policy maximum of $120 per your policy. Each day is measured independently. If you have a policy that defines the maximum benefit as $840 per week, you can spend different amounts each day (e.g., $40 one day and $200 the next) and all qualifying costs are reimbursed up to the weekly ceiling.

Elimination Period: This period is how long you must pay for your own care before the policy starts paying. But how does the policy count this? Let's say you have a policy with a 90-day waiting period. Some policies start counting the first day you pay for care and continue counting on from there. If you get care one day per week, each day is counted from the first day you paid to the next day you paid. Other polices count only the days you actually pay for care; so if you get care only one day per week, it takes 90 weeks to satisfy this policy's elimination period.

Inflation protection: It's impossible to predict how much nursing home care and other forms of custodial care will cost by the time you actually need it. Therefore, inflation protection is a part of the policy that can be very important. Some policies offer customers the right to buy additional coverage in the future. It's important to know that the new premium will be based on your current age, which means it will become more expensive and possibly unaffordable, as you get older. The second approach to inflation protection provides automatic annual increases in benefit amounts. Some use a "simple interest" approach to determine the percentage increase, adding to the daily benefit each year by a stated percentage of the original coverage. Others use the "compound interest" method, which results in much greater benefit increases over time.

Waiver of premium: A provision waiving premium payments discontinues your legal obligation to pay premiums if you are receiving benefits. Some companies stop billing you as they make the first benefit payment. Others wait 60 to 90 days.

Eligibility for benefits: This is also referred to as "qualifying for benefits", or "benefit conditions". Look for how the policy describes the "gatekeepers" who determine when you will receive benefits. With some policies, you can qualify for benefits if your doctor orders specific care. Other policies require that care be "medically necessary for sickness and injury". If you are in need of nursing-home services, but are not sick or injured, you would not qualify. A third type defines eligibility as when you are unable to perform a certain number of "activities of daily living". Some policies evaluate mental functions to determine the qualifications for benefits.

As you can see, the fine print really describes exactly what you are getting when you buy long-term care insurance. Please take a moment to review some long-term care mistakes.

Long Term Care Mistakes

I. I Cannot Afford Long Term Care Insurance

• The cost of not having long term care is much greater. A person confined to a nursing home coupld spend over $60,000 a year.

II. The Government Will Take Care of Me

• Medicare only covers skilled care and most long term care is not skilled care.

III. Medicaid Will Take Care of Me

• You must spend down your assets to poverty level ($2000) before Medicaid will begin to pay. Medicaid will not pay home care cost or assisted living cost.

IV. My Family Will Take Care of Me

• Today, fewer family members are able to provide this service, because of time, distance; and work. Do you want to be a burden on other family members?

V. I Won't Need Long Term Care Insurance, I'm too Young.

• Did you realize 40% of those receiving services are working ages (18-64)?