The applicable law is the 1988
Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA). Section 2006(d) provides a limited exemption for ongoing investigations by employers that don't have broader exemptions (e.g., government agencies). This is the section that most likely applies to your employer. As you suggested, the employer must, among other things, notify the employee in writing of "the basis of the employer's reasonable suspicion that the employee was involved in the incident or activity under investigation." This would seem to preclude the "blanket method" your employer seems to have in mind.
Your employer's motives may be sincere, but it appears that he is setting himself up for a lawsuit(s) through a blatant violation of the EPPA.
Anonymously posting copies of the poster that Beech Trees suggested is one step you may consider taking. It will be helpful if you are not the only employee at your company who understands that polygraphy is a fraud. You and your colleagues will want to read
The Lie Behind the Lie Detector before sitting for any polygraph "test."
Alternatively (or perhaps better, in addition to the above), I would be happy to contact your employer by e-mail or fax, alerting him to the provisions of the EPPA and to the information on polygraphy that is available on AntiPolygraph.org (including, for example, Professor William G. Iacono's article,
"Forensic 'Lie Detection': Procedures Without Scientific Basis.") This may help to dissuade your employer from proceding with his ill-conceived polygraph dragnet. Moreover, in the event that he should go ahead with his polygraph scheme and you or any co-workers should take legal action against him, it will provided substantive proof that he had been informed both about the provisions of the EPPA
and the unreliability of polygraphy. (I'll be happy to provide a sworn statement regarding any e-mail or fax I may send.) If you would like me to do this, you can either post your employer's name and contact information here, or e-mail me at
maschke@antipolygraph.org.
You may also wish to consult with a local attorney competent in labor law before deciding what course to take. The
Martindale Lawyer Locator service can be helpful in finding one.
On a final note, AntiPolygraph.org is seeking passage of a
Comprehensive Employee Polygraph Protection Act (CEPPA) that would eliminate
all the loopholes of the 1988 EPPA. I hope you'll consider working with us to make this proposed legislation the law of the land. You can print out the
full text of the CEPPA and include it in letters to your congressperson and senators asking them to sponsor this legislation.