Employer's policies on how employees use emails and other social media should apply to activities that could damage the employer's reputation even if carried out on home computers. Employees should be warned of the danger of forwarding chain emails.
A recent tribunal case ruled that it was fair to dismiss an employee for damaging the employer's reputation by forwarding an offensive chain e-mail from his home computer to the home computer of a key client's employee, who then sent it on to another employee of the client at work. Prevention is better than cure, so it is worthwhile ensuring IT policies clearly cover such conduct.
Rights to privacy were not relevant, as the tribunal considered that the e-mail was clearly not intended to be private given that it included an instruction to pass it on. The employee was therefore aware it was likely to be forwarded and had no control over what the recipient did with it. (Gosden v Lifeline Project Ltd, ET)
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