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r- an emailing a racy joke using a com puter at work be grounds for dis missal or accessing internet sites your employer deems inappropriate offensive or pornographic the answer is yes and no its a matter- of degree said chuck tahirali research director and consultant at the central ontario industrial relations institute in thornhill y i as odd as it sounds its possible to be found to have engaged m harassment by using email or the internet inappropriately without giving cause for dismissal v ronminkenran employment lawyer in markham agreed employers have the right to dismiss for improperuse of the internet based on the nature and severity of the misconduct and- the impact on the employer or other employ- fees he conceded i but he added possession of or evidence of access to pornographic materials will not in andofitselfrbe cause for dismissal for trfereto be cause for dismissal the employer must showcoriduct that either affects other employees of that has adirect and substantial impact oh perforrnahce witha burgeoning number of workers having access to email and die internet at neirdesks employers arebeconiing more l aware of the potential fofmisuseandabuse 1 sl5 said using companyrcomputers to access adult web sites and send out pornogv- raphybyefmairha photocopier for personal business 1tlifrissuesarisjng from such behaviour i x- minken saidare negleof duty sendusmisy conduct or seharassmentri vtkc yhealso broughtupthe issue of employees i whose work involves chlldrert of who occupy positions of trust toward children or vulnera ble ihciiyiduals these employees are held to a higher stan- vdardwith respect tpthe sort of web sites they are accessing minken said they could even be dfeihissed for cause if they were accessing web sites such as child poniogfaphyon their home com- puter after office hours such hightech 1 workplace issues have focused attention on individualvprivacy rights do employers nave the right to moni tor notonly internet use but also the content of email messages employees send and receive minken believes they do employers have the right to control and regulate the use dieif- computers and activities of theifiemplpyees during working hpihe f kasj5p expectation of privacy wherfusing theemployers com- puteryy v cal the policy be enforced consistently with tahirali however said there aren any supervisors regularly discussing the regula- clecutanswers tionswithyriiployees k vxcbnipahies kneetjerk reaction is that at the end oftheday you dont want tahirali said it is essential for- companies to develop clearcut policies oh harassment and email and internet use file illustration since its company time and equipment being used there should be no expectation of pri- vacy on the part of employees he said employers believe they have the right to monitor but he said it is toqsoon to offer an opinion on how employee pri vacy rights are going to be addressed because many ontario com panies are owned by us compa nies theyre following the lead of us in thinking thattheres no expectation of privacy he explained but some canadian legal experts have questioned whether we can follow the us lead this is still a grey area sure as shooting it will be litigated eventu- ally tahirali said it is essential for companies to develop clearcut policies on harassment arid email and internet use adding it is criti- employees to say they werent aware of the rules he said for companies without welldefined poli cies the consequence of dismissing an employee for inappropriate use of email or the internet can be costly an employee cant necessarily be fired outright without the company facing a wrongful dismissal suit tahirali said minken said personal use of the internet and emails for innocuquspursuits suchas research- vacation planning and brief mes sages to and from friends is difficult for an employer to forbid any dismissal other than a dismissal for just cause will result in severance obligations by the employer which could be as high as two months pay for every year of work or greater he said we recently negotiated two years of pay for a 30year employee and obtained a judg ment of six months of pay for a sixmonth employee plus punitive damages of 20000 currently the law is on the side of the employee he added it is very difficult for an employer to find just cause today another problem is determining what is offensive and what is not said tahirali in ontario die law defines harassment as offensive behaviour or behav iour that should have been known to be offensive he said many companies have taken the stand that jokes involving sex race religion or ethnicity are inappropriate an email joke transferred between two people of like minds is still risky he said tahirali said there are four general cate gories in terms of computer misuse or mis chief intentionally or unintentionally engaging in a form of harassment such as emailing sex ist or racist jokes using explicit screensavers or storing potentially offensive websites damaging or tainting the company rep utation what people dont realize is that some emails identify the company the employee works for tahirali said forwarding offensive emails or accessing chat rooms bulletin boards or news groups can taint the company by association divulging proprietary or confidential inforrnationemail is not secure he said a typical email can travel to numerous com puters before reaching its destination wasting company time and resources by playing games surfing or downloading pro grams that might interfere with company programs tahirali said since the institute started col lecting statistics in 1999 50 per cent of com panies surveyed have policies addressing e- mail and internet use its some indication of the extent to which companies are addressing the issue of poten tial misuse he said but statistics showing the extent of misuse in the workplace are harder to come by he said noting less than 1 per cent of respon dents were willing to admit they used email or the internet for personal use inappropri ate or otherwise neighbourhood empi oy meil t mes ource v pw45ay is- v w- vww vthe centre nerc is a year round no cost facility open to community members and students of stouffville and surrounding areas tthlscentrebfferslwjsandr r v v i i 7 m 1