"Can They Do That? is the question I asked again and again while working in low-wage jobs for my book Nickel and Dimed, and Lewis Maltby is the person I eventually turned to for answers. His new book brilliantly lays out the bitter truth: that the American workplace is a dictatorship where workers have few, if any, rights. Fortunately, it also contains some excellent ideas on how to fight for human rights at work."

-Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed

"Lew Maltby has written a very important book about a subject that has not received nearly the attention it deserves. Congress needs to do more to protect the rights of the American worker. This book can provide a road map."

-Representative Rush Holt (D-NJ)

"Can They Do That? tells Americans the sad truth that their constitutional rights disappear when they go to work and what we must do to end this injustice."

-Nadine Strossen, former president, ACLU; professor of law, New York Law School

"An important book from a tireless champion of workplace human rights."

-Paul S. Miller, former president, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; director, Disability Studies Program, and Henry M. Jackson Professor of Law, University of Washington School of Law

"This is a cogent and compelling look at the issues involved as well as a guide to the principles and practices that would make America more authentically and richly democratic. It should be read and debated by legislators, journalists, academics and the broad public alike."

-Richard S. Parker, president, Americans for Democratic Action "With hard-hitting prose and vivid true-life examples, Lewis Maltby lashes out at employer violations of what most workers assume are their inalienable rights...Existing law doesn't prevent employers from firing employees for expressing a political opinion in a personal blog, spying on them in company restrooms, or refusing to hire them because they failed a defective drug test, credit check, or personality profile."

-Theodore J. St. Antoine, Degan Professor Emeritus of Law and former dean, University of Michigan Law School

"Can They Do That? gives Americans important information they need to know about their rights in the workplace. In clear language, Lewis Maltby unravels the sometimes confusing web of laws and regulations that help shape what happens to employees in America."

-Fred Feinstein, former general counsel, National Labor Relations Board

Product Description

Brilliantly lays out the bitter truth: that the American workplace is a dictatorship where workers have few, if any, rights." -Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed

An expose of the shocking ways that companies invade employees' privacy and restrict their freedom.

Is it legal for your employer to fire you for writing a letter to the editor? Or for putting the "wrong" candidate's bumper sticker on your car? If you answered no, prepare to be shocked.

Americans assume that their basic rights, such as privacy and freedom of speech, remain in force when they go to work. But what if your boss checked your personal e-mail to see if you were really working over the weekend? Or fired you after discovering you had a disease?

Workers' rights advocate Lewis Maltby shares dozens of stories of employees who have been fired or harassed unfairly-but legally. Consider:

•A man denied a job at a retail chain for failing a psychological test that probed his sex life, religious beliefs, even his bathroom habits

•A group of women at a storage company with no legal recourse after discovering a hidden camera installed by their manager in the women's restroom

•A longtime employee dismissed for having a beer after work, because his boss believed drinking was a sin

Over the last twenty years, Maltby has heard hundreds of stories just like these. His expose will change the way you think about your workplace. Bosses abuse and take advantage of their employees every day and get away with it. If a worker steals a hundred dollars out of the cash register and gets caught, he will be criminally prosecuted and very possibly sent to prison. If an employer steals a hundred dollars in wages from a worker, or a hundred dollars from every worker in the company, there is virtually no chance of criminal prosecution.

There is a silver lining, however. As Maltby shows, there are steps that we all can take to restore our rights in the workplace.