Southampton Village Union Alleges Mishandling of Sensitive Employee Records

The leadership of the Civil Service Employees Association, the union that represents much of the workforce in Southampton Village, has charged that the village has improperly stored files containing sensitive personal information, leaving them vulnerable to potential prying eyes.

Village officials said this week that they were looking into the matter.

A complaint that was brought to the association by an unnamed Southampton Village employee who is a member of the union accused the village of “compromising the privacy of numerous village residents and employees by failing to securely store village files.”

According to Wendi Bowie, CSEA’s communications specialist, the alleged privacy breach came to the attention of the CSEA after a union member noticed an unusual number of people frequenting the village’s Highway Department barn, and became curious.

“The member decided to investigate further — and walked in on someone viewing the files,” Bowie said in an email late last Friday. “She took a closer look and saw that private files were being stored in the barn.”

Bowie said the documents stored in the boxes at the barn included sensitive information such as names, addresses, Social Security numbers, medical records and contact information, as well as overtime sheets, Division of Human Rights complaints, doctors’ notes and more.

According to Bowie, the CSEA’s contract with Southampton Village — as well as New York Labor Law and federal law — requires that employers store employee records in a locked, secured storage facility.

Late on Tuesday afternoon, Sergio Diaz, the labor relations specialist representing the CSEA unit of employees in Southampton Village, sent a letter to Southampton Village Mayor Bill Manger informing him of the situation.

In the letter, Diaz said he was informed by “multiple” union members that boxes and trash bags containing employee personnel records and other private records were being stored in the Highway Department barn and exposed to anyone to view and copy.

He also pointed out that the current CSEA contract with the village stipulates that only one personnel file per employee will be securely kept at Village Hall, and that the presence of the files at the Highway Department barn potentially could represent a breach of that contract, in addition to violating several laws, including the Americans With Disabilities Act and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

In the letter, Diaz also wrote that, under state labor laws, employers are prohibited from posting or displaying an employee’s Social Security number, visibly printing that number on any ID badge or card, including a timecard, and placing Social Security numbers in files with open access. “Overall, the primary purpose of these laws is to strike a balance between organizational needs and individual privacy rights, safeguarding employees’ personal information from misuse and exposure,” the letter said.

The letter also went on to say that, by law, a person found to have willfully violated the recordkeeping requirements can face criminal sanctions, including fines and even jail time.

The letter concluded with a demand by the CSEA for the village to “immediately remediate” the situation.

“Absent a swift solution to this problem, the CSEA will have no choice but to evaluate the situation for litigation and to advise our members of their individual rights to seek legal recourse.”

Southampton Village Administrator Scott Russell confirmed receipt of the letter, saying it was received at Village Hall around 3:30 on Tuesday, April 1.

“After a discussion with the mayor and counsel, we have started an investigation to gather all of the facts,” Russell said in an email. “Then we will determine a course of action once they are presented.”

Until the receipt of the letter, both Russell and Manger said that none of the CSEA union leadership or members had brought the issue to their attention.

Manger said he has asked Russell, the village administrator, to take the lead on looking into the situation.

“No one has come to me with a formal complaint,” he said on Tuesday morning, before the letter arrived at Village Hall. “I don’t know enough about it right now, and I’ve asked Scott to look into it and report back to me on what he finds.”