employee confidentiality

First you have to understand...a suspendable or fireable issue rarely occurs in a vacuum where only you and the HR manager knows anything ( I will venture that is actually NEVER the case). That means there are other parties involved, sometimes more than a few. They are not subject to any confidentiality agreements. And second...what many people perceive as "Employee Rights" frequently aren't.

What country and state/province would you be employed in? What rights you might or might not have depend on the job site is.

What "employee rights" sorry that is really a myth, there are company rules and a few but not many laws on pay and benefits and are different in various locations.

Next it is almost impossible for the HR manager not to know, unless this is just a local manager and the decission came from corporate office.

You have legal rights to see your file at work ( in most areas) and to be told why disipline has been done. But in most business, often various employees will know why something has happened, or may know things they think is the issue.

Without specifics it's hard to guess about any confidentiality whether company policy or not. I can't even tell if you know why you were suspended, if the co-worker is correct in his knowledge, how he happens to know why, and if he told HR what the reason was or just said he knew.

Since the word got out from some source other than HR (assuming HR really doesn't know), then I would wonder how you could expect it to be kept confidential.

If you failed a drug test, were arrested for something outside of work, lied about your background, are doing work for another company against the terms of your contract, or are suspected of some action at work, then obviously others are in the know.

If you think the co-worker was told by the people who made the decision and that is the only way he could possibly know, then take that up with them. But if there is anything about the suspension that could endanger co-workers' health or safety, you have no expectation of confidentiality even in a company that has some policy about it.

I work for a private club and my suspension was placed by a few of the executive board members, but an action of this course takes full board approval by the constitution. To protect these individuals and legalize the motion, the suspension was ratified by vote at an emergency board meeting. I fulfilled the suspension of 2 weeks without pay. On the evening before I was to return to work, they called me and suspended me for new allegations that are "being investigated", however, this suspension is with pay. I realize that I live in an "at will" state (NY) and have very few rights as an employee. I, after all, am the manager of this club and have read the laws. My basic question was if there are laws that protect employee confidentiality, apparently not. Thanks.