Trouble-Shooting the Problem E-Mails

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News stories abound. There’s one about UPS catching an employee running a personal business on a company computer. There’s another about IBM employees trashing the company pension plan in an Internet chat room. And, there’s plenty more like them.

In today’s electronic communication environment, workers outfitted with computers and Internet access have employers, attorneys and employment specialists edgy about concerns that go far beyond staff using company time to play electronic solitaire or e-shop for Christmas gifts.

Electronic communication abuse has become the fastest growing source of workplace litigation and a breeding ground for financial and public relations nightmares.

Today’s employers must grapple with employees who use company e-mail to make threatening, offensive or fraudulent statements that could generate a lawsuit that would, almost certainly, implicate the company. What about workers who electronically communicate copyrighted, confidential or proprietary material? Or consider the potential for sexual harassment claims when employees download pornography and transmit images to other employees. Then there are workers who use company Internet access for day trading, gambling or soliciting new job opportunities.

“The potential legal exposure for fraud, copyright infringement, harassment, defamation and other ‘big ticket’ causes of action is staggering,” said Tony Burnham, executive vice president and employment counsel for Abbott Resource Group Inc. (ARG), an Irvine-based contingent staffing and human resources management firm. “But, there are steps an individual or company can take to minimize the risk of electronic communication nightmares.”

Burnham, who leads ARG seminars on Internet-related issues in the workplace, stresses that companies need to be proactive in designing, implementing, and enforcing an effective electronic communications policy. Such policies involve asking employees to sign an acknowledgment restricting their use of computers and the Internet only to purposes that facilitate company business.

Burnham suggests that the policy clearly identify proper and improper usage and both supervisor and employee accountability for infractions. He also recommends posting a message reminding employees of the policy each time they log on to the computer. Burnham added, “Most employers by now have installed ‘zero tolerance’ drug and non-harassment policies for their own protection. As important as those policies are, they pale in comparison to the legal risks involved in not having a well-drafted and communicated policy against the misuse by employees of a company’s electronic equipment. Without that protection, an employer truly becomes a sitting duck for the plaintiff’s bar.”

Some companies have installed software that monitors how workers use the Internet. Likewise, filtering devices that block sports, financial, gambling and pornographic sites have been used to keep workers focused on company business.

The American Management Association recently found that 27% of large United States firms have begun randomly checking employee e-mail. While this practice has generated concerns about rights to privacy, Governor Gray Davis vetoed a measure in early October that would have barred employers from secretly monitoring e-mail and computer files.

Burnham said, “Electronic communication is a critical part of how we want to do business now and in the future. Despite the medium’s benefits of efficiency and productivity, companies cannot ignore its considerable risks. Employers need to become educated about how to reduce those risks.”

Information for this article was provided by Abbott Resource Group, Inc. For more information, contact them directly at (888) 997-9675.

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