[28.12.2006 first posted on silicon republic]
Irish employers are being exposed to much greater costs due to employee abuse of their email and internet privileges, the Small Firms Association (SFA) has warned. It has emerged that 57pc of Irish companies do not have an email and internet usage policy in place.

“Email and internet misuse by employees, can leave an employer open to much greater costs than lost productivity alone, including libel actions, inadvertent entry into binding contracts, breaches of copyright legislation and exposure to sexual harassment and bullying claims,” the assistant director of the Small Firms Association, Avine McNally warned.
McNally warned that businesses are facing a growing problem over e-mail and internet abuse by employees and that many companies will face future legal action if they fail to have adequate safeguards in place to protect their staff, customers, and the general public from this problem.
“The duty of care rests with the employer to protect their staff and customers from receiving information which they may find objectionable,” McNally said. “The growing propensity of e-mail and internet abuse across society generally, is now finding expression in the workplace. Such abuse places a significant duty of care on employers and is costing Irish business hundreds of millions a year in productivity alone.
She said that if employees with access misuse email or the internet for only 10 minutes each day, then the cost to Irish business is over €575m a year, in pure productivity terms.
“But email and internet abuse, can leave an employer open to even greater costs, such as libel actions, inadvertent entry into binding contracts, breaches of copyright legislation and exposure to sexual harassment and bullying claims”, McNally continued.
“The most important thing for companies to realise is that they will be held to be vicariously liable for the actions of their employees, even if these actions take place without the company’s consent.”
McNally gave the example of a leading UK insurance company was forced to pay £450,000 sterling damages to a small financial house, which had gone out of business, due to a chain e-mail originated by one of the insurance firms’ employees on the company’s email system.
The offending email speculated that the business was unsound and was sent throughout the City of London.
McNally said it is essential for companies to ensure that all emails emanating from their systems, have an appropriately worded disclaimer in the footer, to limit the company’s liability to libel actions.
“Companies are easily exposed to claims of harassment, sexual harassment, and bullying in the workplace, originating in email and internet abuse.. Under the Employment Equality Act, 1998 & 2004, awards can be made up to two years remuneration, in the case of a harassment claim, whilst compensation in civil actions can be unlimited, so these issues should be taken very seriously by every business”, McNally added.
She said it is vital for all companies to put in place a comprehensive email and internet abuse policy, which clearly sets out rules for personal use, prohibits access to offensive material and sets out safeguards to protect the company’s interests. Irish employers need to wake up to the scope, extent and impact which e-mail and internet abuse can have on their businesses.
McNally stressed that employers should inform staff that the internet and email should not be used for: personal gain or profit; to represent yourself as someone else; to post or download messages that contain political views; to post or download messages that contain inappropriate, obscene, inflammatory, intimidatory, harassing, defamatory, disruptive or otherwise offensive language and anything that will reflect poorly on the company’s name and professional reputation.
Employees should also be told not to advertise or otherwise support unauthorised or illegal activities or to provide lists or information about employees to others or to send classified information without approval.
“SFA analysis shows that 57pc of small businesses have no email and internet abuse policy in place, despite the fact that they will be held legally liable if their employees misuse their IT systems,” McNally concluded.
“While small businesses have actively embraced technology and have put e-mail and the internet on most desktops in order to achieve productivity gains, this empowerment brings with it a risk that many companies do not realise.”
By John Kennedy