Employers warned over web use policies

A top legal expert has warned that companies could find themselves shelling out huge amounts of cash in unfair dismissal cases if they do not have an 'acceptable use' policy for surfing the internet.

Speaking at a SurfControl-sponsored security conference in Belfast, Richard Steele, a barrister and lecturer at Queens University, said that, with little in the way of case law, firms were finding their employees using the internet unacceptably but were unable legally to get rid of them.

Unless a company has an 'acceptable use' policy which it sticks to, it could find that an industrial tribunal could overturn a sacking or force it to pay out cash in compensation, said Steele.

He added that internet employment law was a grey area because of a lack of case law, and that many firms were paying off employees that were obviously bending the rules too much rather than risk an industrial tribunal.

"I have heard of one case where someone was sacked for sending abusive emails only to claim constructive dismissal because he did not know that he was not allowed to do so," Steele said. Another case involved an employee who argued that it was his right under Human Rights legislation to download porn while at work.

Steele advised firms to place the policy in employees' contracts of employment and that, while it was no guarantee that a firm would win at an industrial tribunal, it would strengthen its case considerably.