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Latest News

Smutty e-mails a sackable offence, tribunal decides

by Personnel Today 28 Nov 2000
by Personnel Today 28 Nov 2000

The right of employers to sack staff for sending personal e-mails has been strengthened by an employment tribunal decision yesterday.

David Pennington and Rupert Beverley were sacked from Holset Engineering in Huddersfield after a colleague complained about a circulated joke e-mail.

The landmark tribunal threw out unfair dismissal claims by the employees, who claimed they did not know that they were doing anything wrong.

Although other workers have been sacked for sending emails, it is the first time that the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act has been challenged.

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Legal experts say the case sends out a clear warning to staff.

Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

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Personnel Today
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