Acceptable Use Policy
Here are examples of how the Internet and technology can rebound
on the Employer
1. Vicarious liability. Employers are liable for the activities
of their employees at work in relation to other employees and
to the outside world.
1.1. Outside world. The question is whether the employee
was acting in the course of his employment. An employee can
be so acting even if working at home or away on business, so
the time of day or place at which the activity is done is not
a deciding factor. Connex paid a commuter damages when a Connex
employee seriously injured a commuter in an arm lock, when the
latter objected to ticket inspection
1.2. Other employees. As employer, you may be held accountable
by an employee, who feels that she or he is being harassed or
discriminated (whether sexual or racial) against by a fellow
worker. A risqu' photograph or joke sent to a fellow-worker
by email can trigger a complaint
2. Defamation. Whether an email is viewed as libel (permanent)
or slander (verbal, non-permanent), it is clear that defamation
proceedings will lie. British Gas agreed to pay more than £200,000
in libel damages in 1999 in one of the first email damages cases
settled in the UK. 
British
Gas sent an internal memorandum to staff stating that they should
have no dealings with a competitor, Exoteric Gas Solutions and
implied that it was in financial trouble. It had been set up by
an ex-British Gas employee, the former head of engineering. This
led to his suffering loss and damage and there was no justification
for the boycott.
3. Viruses. If an employee downloads software or opens
email with viruses, it can trash your system and perhaps, go on
to infect the systems of all your clients and contacts.
3.1. Virus-checkers
are always out of date. You can have run the latest version
but this will not catch the very latest virus.
3.2. Employees need to be trained to be suspicious of anything
coming from an unrecognised source and prohibited from surfing
generally for non-work related purposes and indeed from private
use of the Internet altogether
4. Privacy generally. The Human Rights Act 1998, Article
8 reads: "Everyone has the right to respect for his private
and family life, his home and his correspondence. There shall
be no interference by a public authority with the exercise of
this right except such as is in accordance with the law and is
necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national
security, public safety or the economic well-being of the country,
for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of
health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms
of others
5. Privacy at work. The European Court of Human Rights
has held that an employee has a legitimate expectation of privacy
at work. Employers should therefore not read private emails. How
will he know what is private until after he has read them! It
has now been suggested that an employer ringing an employee at
home might be an invasion of privacy
6. Breach of confidence. This is another growing area of
litigation. In one case, the producer for a TV programme was held
to have breached a confidential relationship with the Claimant
even though all material in the programme was already in the public
domain, in particular the newspapers
7. Further, it is too easy to send an email to an unintended recipient
so it is sensible for business to seek to protect themselves as
much as possible against the legal consequences of an error by
routinely ensuring that communications have confidentiality notices,
warnings and disclaimers. However, it will not save their embarrassment
8. Conclusion. Protect yourself as much as possible by
issuing to all your staff an Acceptable Use Policy and make sure
it dovetails with your Disciplinary and Grievance Procedure.
E-mail confidentiality notices, warnings, and disclaimers
Consider what E-mail confidentiality notices, warnings, and disclaimers
you need and set up your systems so that employees cannot unthinkingly
omit them. You could end your emails with any combination of the
following statements:
-
"The contents of this email are confidential to
the intended recipient and may be legally privileged. It may
not be disclosed to or used by anyone other than this addressee,
nor may it be copied in any way."
-
"If received
in error, please contact Kaslers Solicitors LLP, a UK law
firm, on +44 (0) 1622 618647 quoting the name of the sender
and the addressee and then delete it from your system."
-
"Please
note that neither Kaslers Solicitors LLP nor the sender accepts
any responsibility for viruses and it is your responsibility
to scan the email and attachments (if any)."
-
"No contracts
may be concluded on behalf of Kaslers Solicitors LLP by means
of email communications."
-
"You should
be aware that under the provisions of the Regulation of Investigatory
Powers Act 2000 e-mails and telephone calls may in certain
circumstances lawfully be intercepted and we accept no liability
for any loss or damage which may result to its correspondents
as a result of such interception."
-
"Copyright in documents created by or on behalf of
this firm remains vested in the firm and we assert our moral
rights, unless the terms of the relevant clients engagement
provide otherwise
Related topics you may find useful:
Data Protection
Discrimination
Unfair Dismissal
Call Michael Breeze on 07900 195 195 or call 0845 270 2511 to
set up an appointment
