One of the most cherished rights of Americans would be the right to privacy, yet many working class Americans, unfortunately, have been subject to their rights being disrupted and their privacy being invaded at their workplace. One major issue that has existed and still exists in the workforce of America is civil liberties violations. According to her book Nickel and Dimed: On not getting by in America, Barbara Ehrenreich writes that "What surprised and offended me the most about the low-wage workplace was the extent to which one is required to surrender one's basic civil rights and- what boils down to the same thing-self-respect"(211). In other words, low-wage employees are being treated with indignity by inhumane employers of large corporations in order to keep them in their places for profit. This assertion implies that civil liberties of working class Americans are being violated today, as it is evident through the constant surveillance, unwarranted drug testing, and discrimination of employees in low-wage corporations. This assertion by Ehrenreich is generally valid because in 2013, the American Civil Liberties Union received more complaints about workplace rights violations than about any other issue, which firmly proves that this problem still manifests through the invasion of privacy, even after Ehrenreich wrote her book in 1999. .
The privileges of low-wage workers are being usurped through constant surveillance by corporate employers who are seemingly fearful of potential thefts, unions and other plots that could bring down the company. In other words, corporations are employing surveillance methods like telephone monitoring and electronic surveillances such as computer and video monitoring to spy on employees without regard for their privacy. As a matter of fact, employers take pleasure in keeping tabs of their employees and fortunately for them, the present advancements of technology have made it easier for them to monitor workers from beginning till end of their shifts.
