In what lawyers and computer specialists are both calling a "landmark"
legal decision, a British Employment Tribunal [Civil Court responsible for
Employment cases] has confirmed the dismissal of a Computer Manager
from her $32,000 a year job for unauthorised private use of her employer's
Web connection during working hours.

When first challenged the employee had claimed that she had done
so only once, to search and book a holiday.  However, an examination
of the company's monitoring log proved that she had accessed over 150
different web pages.

The only slight consolation for the employee was that the Tribunal [Court]
decided that under her contract she should have been given a month's
salary in lieu of notice of termination of employment, and therefore made
an award of about $3,000  This apparently technical detail means that
the Tribunal decided that while warranting dismissal, under British law
the breach of her employment obligations did not amount to "gross
misconduct" - for which an employee can dismiss without notice or any
compensation, but only "misconduct" - for which the employee is entitled
to the minimum period of notice of termination of employment under his or
her contact of employment (or payment in lieu of such notice).

Commenting on the case, the national professional body for personnel and
human resources managers has again stressed the need for all employers to
have a very clear code on Internet (and intranet) use and mis-use, setting
out in clear terms both what is permissible and the penalties for
different forms of mis-use (e.g. a clear ban on all unauthorised use,
bans on accessing pornographic sites, posting or forwarding offensive
material, or whatever).

Patrick Boylan

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