No manager wants lying employees on staff. But there’s one tool they definitely can’t use to pick them out.

A manager at a Jiffy Lube franchise told his supervisor that a competing location offered him a job, in violation of the company’s franchise agreement.

The manager at the other franchise denied the solicitation charge. As part of the investigation, the complainant was asked to take a lie detector test. He complied and signed a consent form.

The results suggested he was lying, and the owner demoted him. He submitted a two-week notice of his resignation, but was terminated immediately.

He sued the company, claiming it violated the Employee Polygraph Protection Act, which forbids companies from making employment decisions based on the results of a lie detector test. In most cases, the act prohibits even asking an employee to take the test.

The company claimed the employee wasn’t demoted because of the results of the polygraph test, but rather for his “disloyalty, lack of candor and poor judgment.”

However, as the judge noted, that determination was made by gathering evidence in an illegal way. The court ruled for the employee.

Cite: Harmon v. CB Squared Services, Inc.

Tags: lie detector, polygraph