Question: Sabrina Polkey was a supervisor and one of six Transtecs Corp. employees working in a mailroom at Pensacola Naval Air Station (NAS), through a Department of Defense (DoD) contract. One day, Polkey returned to the mailroom after working hours and discovered 14 opened and undelivered Christmas cards in the wastebasket at the front desk. Each of the six mailroom employees was questioned and each denied opening the mail. Transtecs arranged for polygraph exams for all six employees to absolve the company of any wrongdoing in the event that charges were pursued against the perpetrator.
Employees were informed that the polygraph was voluntary and they each signed a general release form for the polygraph. Only one employee agreed to and took the polygraph test; Polkey did not. Less than a week later, Polkey was fired for a separate incident that supervisors claimed was a violation of NAS security procedures. Polkey believed that her refusal to take the polygraph was the true reason for her termination and claimed that the request to take a polygraph was a violation of the Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA). Transtecs claimed that their request fell within EPPA's exemptions for an ongoing investigation and national security (based on the contract with the DoD). Who is correct? [ Polkey v. Transtecs Corp., 404 F.3d 1264 (11th Cir. 2005).