Articles by McGrigors
01 February 2006
How to avoid getting tangled in the web
of workplace emails
by Alan Nicholson
(Published The Scotsman)
How would you feel about your boss reading your emails at work? "Outraged - my emails are private!"? "Relaxed - I've got nothing to hide!"? Most of us would fall somewhere in between, acknowledging we probably have to live with some kind of email monitoring by our employers, but confident that we're careful enough not to say anything in a message that could put our jobs on the line. But how confident can we really be, and how much snooping can the boss get away with?
It was reported this week that a leading STV executive has been sacked for describing her managing director as a "fat thing" in what she thought was a private email to her colleague. Agnes Wilkie is fighting her dismissal, partly on the basis that it was unfair for the MD to access her private emails.
But is it realistic for employees to expect any kind of privacy around the emails they send at work? If the employer provides the equipment shouldn't it be allowed to set the rules about how that technology is used? And if it sets the rules, surely it should be permitted to check that they're being followed?
Chances are that if your employer provides you with a computer giving you access to emails and the internet then there will be an "acceptable use" policy that tells you what you can and can't do. Chances are you've never read it. But chances are you click "ok" every morning to acknowledge that you have read it, understood it, and are ready to take the consequences of breaching it.
However, recent employment tribunal cases involving dismissals for email or internet abuse have shown some sympathy towards workers who are inadvertently caught out by woolly acceptable use policies. Employers will be hard-pushed to show that such dismissals are fair unless they can point to a clear, well-communicated and consistently-applied policy.
It is of course legal for employers to monitor staff email. It stands to reason that they should be able to make sure their employees aren't breaking the law by forwarding offensive material or sending abusive messages to colleagues. Employers might also want to monitor email traffic to make sure staff aren't sending vast volumes of personal messages or leaking confidential business information outside the workplace. But monitoring is subject to the Data Protection Act and the Human Rights Act. The law recognises that our working and private lives will overlap from time to time, and emails that are clearly marked personal should normally be off limits as far as our bosses are concerned. Employers who can't justify why or how they carry out email monitoring may be infringing the rights of those they monitor, and any decisions (like dismissals) that flow from illegal surveillance may therefore be found to be unfair.
The flip-side is that employees need to familiarise
themselves with the policies their employer has in place and make sure
they know on which side of the line their "e-banter" is likely
to fall. There are many who will sympathise with Agnes Wilkie, and no
doubt many who will be trimming down their 'sent items' as a direct result.
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