Just one single white email

By ROBIN STUMMER

A joke shared with a colleague, a party invitation or an internet funny passed round the office sounds harmless enough. But a third of British firms have sacked staff over alleged abuse of emails in company time, according to a new report.

The survey, of leading companies and public bodies, reveals the growing numbers of people dismissed or suspended for sending "unauthorised" emails. More than half the companies surveyed are reporting serious problems concerning email misuse.

The action against new technology-related offences - including email and internet abuse - now exceeds the combined total for dishonesty, violence and health and safety breaches at work. The most common single reason for dismissal is the sending of unauthorised emails, usually of a pornographic nature.

The survey, called People and Technology and carried out by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, is the most thorough undertaken so far into email abuse in the workplace.

"We wouldn't want our organisation to impose draconian measures," says CIPD spokesman Gerwyn Davies.

"That hinders creativity and trust, and there's a balance to be struck. But the legal implications are large, and that has led organisations to be more alert, and more sophisticated in their IT systems."



The new statistics underline the huge surge in recent years in cases of alleged new-technology abuse in the workplace. They follow the announcement of new Government and trade union codes of practice that set out the legal limits of employers' powers to covertly monitor employees' activities. It was based on replies from 316 private and public organisations in the United Kingdom, and is the first to include data from the state sector.

The job-search service Fish4jobs has found that a third of men admitted spending up to 40 minutes a day flirting by email with their female colleagues, while a similar number of women said they used email to organise their social lives. Most office workers said they send messages to colleagues who sit mere metres away.

Another survey found that time spent by employees using the internet for unauthorised periods has risen from a total of eight to 11.5 working days a year.

A number of large companies, including Cadbury Schweppes, Hogg Robinson and Camelot have set up email-free days to encourage creativity. Nestle has also suggested that staff send "fewer Friday emails".

The survey, carried out last year among 212 businesses by solicitors KLegal and Personnel Today magazine, found that nearly two-thirds of email and internet-related sackings in the United Kingdom were for accessing or distributing pornographic or sexual material.

Ninety per cent of private businesses are revealed to have taken action against staff for new technology misuse in the past five years, while, in the public sector, 77 per cent of organisations reported having taken some kind of action against employees.

Yet offenders in the public sector are far less likely to be dismissed - 36 per cent were sacked, against 45 per cent of those employed by businesses in other sectors.

The TUC has just issued its own surveillance and monitoring law update for workers.

"Most organisations will monitor to a greater or lesser extent," says Mark Mansell, head of employment law at lawyers Allen & Overy.

"If there is a suspicion that someone is reading pornography, that does justify monitoring."

But porn isn't the only worry for employers. "There have been cases where someone planning to leave a company has passed information to a new employer. This happens surprisingly regularly."

Several weeks ago, the British Government unveiled its 42-page code of practice on workplace surveillance.

"Only in exceptional circumstances will it be appropriate for employers to monitor their employees without their knowledge," said information commissioner Richard Thomas.

"In reality, there are few circumstances in which covert monitoring is justified."

The new code makes clear the employers' obligation to comply with the terms of the Data Protection Act, and also points to the Human Rights Act, which acknowledges a privacy right for personal correspondence. Staff must be told that monitoring of emails and internet use is to be carried out, and why.

- INDEPENDENT