Five employees at Swansea College in Wales have been sacked after sending lewd e-mails and another 70 workers may be disciplined.
The e-mails, including soft porn pictures and rude jokes, were allegedly sent by college lecturers from their work computers, South Wales Evening Post reports.
One lecturer branded the action as ridiculous. “Thousands of people in offices throughout the country pass on joke and saucy e-mails every day,” he said.
“This action by the college authorities is a ridiculous over-reaction – the lecturers involved are very capable and do a good job. The problem was that the college logo is on the bottom of our e-mail messages.”
A college spokeswoman said they were still in the process of investigating e-mail misuse.
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“Until the investigation reaches a close, we are unable to comment on the extent or content. Swansea College has a clear IT policy for staff regarding the use of IT in the workplace. We take any incident of e-mail misuse extremely seriously,” she said.
Don’t miss our policy guide on e-mail and internet usage