Dismissal for sending offensive e-mail between home computers is fair

 An Employment Tribunal has held that an employee was dismissed fairly for sending an offensive e-mail from his home computer to his colleague’s home computer. No privacy attached to the e-mail since it was a chain e-mail asking recipients to pass it on. This case highlights the tension that can exist, when employees use social media outside of work, between the employer’s right to protect its reputation and arguments about the employee’s privacy.

 We are now adding Social Networking to our email and internet policies and it is important that employees are made aware of the implications of emailing in a way that they think is private but has an employment impact. We recommend that this is included in handbooks and induction material.

 Both facebook and other internet sites are leading to more and more prosecutions at a criminal and employment level so warning employees about their personal responsibility is important, particularly in relation to discrimination and bullying. This equally applies to colleagues that send text messages to each other’s personal phones.

 There will be a blog about this in the next couple of weeks and we welcome your comments. Hardwick HR Blog