Deflategate, the colloquialism adopted in popular culture to describe the investigation into what happened when footballs were deflated below the National Football League's required minimum air pressure before a 2015 playoff game, has given rise to the question of whether employers can search an employee's personal electronic device during a workplace investigation.

Workplace investigations can involve interviews with multiple employees, as well as searches of any company-issued electronic devices. But can an employer search an employee's personal electronic device, not routinely used for business, during a workplace investigation?

[...]

Thomas G. Servodidio, partner at management-side law firm Duane Morris LLP's Philadelphia office, recommends employers develop a policy that includes access to personal mobile devices as well as company issued mobile devices. 

"In that policy we suggest that employers make it clear that if an employee uses a personal device for conducting business, connecting with clients, communicating with coworkers that there is an understanding, through that policy, that the employer has the right to protect [their] business through access to that mobile device," Servodidio said.

To read the full text of the article, please visit the Bloomberg BNA website.