More and more organisations are realising that they need to draw up employee guidelines for e-communication - and ensure that staff are aware of them...
People Management, 16 Sep 1999
"If the company needs to dismiss someone for a gross abuse, it must have a policy in place stating that defamation or racist or sexist comments could result in summary dismissal," warns Sara Ellacott, a solicitor at Nabarro Nathanson.
"It is important to warn people. If you are auditing, it must be stated that the company owns the system for work purposes and it will be audited and monitored. A list of do's and don'ts is not enough. If employers make no statement and then have a problem, it's much harder to do anything."
But this raises the issue of policing. Employers have no automatic right to put staff under surveillance. New legislation, to come into effect in October next year, will make it illegal for organisations to examine someone's e-mails without permission. Robin Chater, director of the Personnel Policy Research Unit, an independent consultancy, has drafted a code of practice for consideration by the data protection commissioner.
"YouÕre allowed to survey [employees] only if it's part of the contract of employment," he says. "We need a fair and workable set of ground rules. Decent employers tend to attract decent employees. There are always some dishonest people, but it doesn't have to become institutionalised. Everyone needs some redundant time, and the system is not being set up to allow it. We should build back in the human limits."
The use of filtering software can block access to certain kinds of Internet sites, but the results have been variable. Most of these applications look for words or phrases that are inappropriate - the most obvious being "sex". But, with the more basic filters, this can lead to serious restrictions - for example, preventing any discussion of sex discrimination or sexual harassment issues by e-mail.
Trade unions are in the process of drawing up guidelines for their own members. Dave Prentis, Unison's deputy general secretary, says: "Use and misuse of the Internet is going to become more and more prominent. We do need guidelines for electronic media. There should be clear rules laid down and agreed between staff and management.
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