Many employees complain that they are being watched while they work during the day. The majority of US companies keep watch on their workers with video cameras, tape recorders, computer surveillance. If you send personal e-mail on your office computer, there's a good chance the boss is keeping an eye on you.

　　In a new survey of more than 900 major US companies, nearly 2/3 of them acknowledged using a range of surveillance methods to monitor their employees. Some employers issue that warning, but others do not. In the most worrisome findings of the survey, up to a quarter of the companies that monitor their work force do it secretly, and the practice is on the rise. According to the ACLU workplace rights project, the number of employees been monitored has doubled in the last five years.

　　What's driving this increase? Partly it’s competition. If everyone else in an industry is keeping tags on their workers, there's pressure to join in. But to a large extend, companies have stepped up monitoring, simply because it could be done cheaply and efficiently. Most employers insist that these are legitimate and even necessary business practices. According to these employers, even as surveillance becomes more wide spread, there's nothing sinister about the practice itself.

　　They claim that these practices we are talking about for the most part are very legitimate forms of performance monitoring. They say employers have a right to know how equipment they provide is been used on the job, if rules are being obeyed, if employees are getting the job done.

　　That helps explain why banks routinely take customer service calls, and why the US postal service is testing a satellite system to track how long it takes to get the mail delivered.

　　The National Association of Manufactures says companies are using technology to accomplish other important goals. Video cameras were recently installed in his building to deter theft. And the association keeps a log of all phone calls, so employees can pay the company for their personal calls. According to the association, monitoring can be used for the worker's own protection. If an employee is sending pornography from an employer's computer, obviously the employer will be expected to go through there.

　　If somebody complains about sexual harassment, that somebody sending out visual slurs over the e-mail, the employer has a right to take action. In fact, the Chevron cooperation which sued by female employees who said they were sexually harassed through company e-mail. But many attorneys are arguing that employees do not give up their privacy rights when they show up for work. Rebecca Lock, the legal director of the ACLU’s work place rights project doesn't agree.

　　She concedes there are legitimate uses of monitoring programs. But too often surveillance practices demean workers for no good reason. Lock argues that employee should not have to leave their human dignity at the work place door. And she says they’re entitled to a few safe guards in this area. Employees should always been informed when they are monitored. Some employees even emphasize that there should be no monitoring whatsoever in purely private areas.

　　Yet so far, there's only one state— Connecticut — that forbids surveillance in areas such as locker rooms, or the employee lounge. In other states, employers do secretly video tape private places if faces theft or criminal activities such as drug dealing.

　　There's only one federal statute, in 1986, Electronic Communication's Privacy Act that safeguard employee privacy. But according to the National Association of Manufacturers, the scope of the Act is limited to eavesdropping on private telephone calls.

　　Employee rights' attorney Penny Nathan Keen isn't involved in the case over this very issue. She says as the companies continue to expand employee monitoring, workers are turning to the court to protect their rights. There may even be good business reasons for companies to think twice about increase surveillance.

　　Studies link electronic monitoring to higher levels of worker stress which can lead to lower productivity.