The Employee Polygraph Protection Act of 1988 places stringent regulations on employers’ use of polygraphs, extremely limiting their usefulness. Federal law greatly restricts the use of lie detector tests as employment screening devices and prohibits the majority of employers from requiring or suggesting that applicants undergo tests or from using test results. Federal law also prohibits:

Requiring, requesting, suggesting or causing, directly or indirectly, any employee or prospective employee to take or submit to a lie detector test
Basing employment decisions solely on the test results
Disciplining, discharging or discriminating against any employee or applicant for refusing to take a lie detector test1

In addition to these protections under federal law, state law similarly prohibits retaliating against or discharging an employee for refusing to submit to a polygraph, lie detector or similar test.2

The federal act contains severely limited exceptions to the general ban on polygraph testing. Under extremely limited circumstances, you can perform polygraph tests on:

Prospective employees of security guard firms
Employees involved in the manufacture, distribution or dispensation of controlled substances
Current employees who are reasonably suspected of being involved in a workplace incident that resulted in an economic loss or injury to your business3

1. 29 U.S.C. 2001-2009

2. Lab. Code sec. 432.2

3. 29 U.S.C. 2006

Background Checks and Testing

Polygraphs and Lie Detector Tests

Background Checks and Testing