Reading other people's Office e-mails - without knowledge
Discussion
Adam T said:
I would like your help,
I wont go into specifics, but;
Is it; a) wrong, b)legal, or illegal, as an employer to (and in what circumstances would it be right?) to read e-mails between two employees, without their knowledge?
Almost definitely legal.I wont go into specifics, but;
Is it; a) wrong, b)legal, or illegal, as an employer to (and in what circumstances would it be right?) to read e-mails between two employees, without their knowledge?
Either there will be an email use policy or you're supposed to be working whilst at work thus all incoming and outgoing emails are work related - if there's anything else it's misconduct.
Some emails maybe gross misconduct - out the door time.
[/quote]
Almost definitely legal.
Either there will be an email use policy or you're supposed to be working whilst at work thus all incoming and outgoing emails are work related - if there's anything else it's misconduct.
Some emails maybe gross misconduct - out the door time.
[/quote]
What about someone who is off sick, personal e-mail, and someone at work?
Adam T said:
DonnyMac said:
Almost definitely legal.
Either there will be an email use policy or you're supposed to be working whilst at work thus all incoming and outgoing emails are work related - if there's anything else it's misconduct.
Some emails maybe gross misconduct - out the door time.
If you explain a bit more you'll get a definitive answer in the morning from a legal type.
If your employer has just given you the boot it will probably not be for personal emails, even if that's what is cited.
ETA - are you off sick, has your employer checked your emails whilst you're off (for business purposes) then found all your job application emails (or worse)?
Edited by DonnyMac on Thursday 19th February 19:36
Adam T said:
I would like your help,
I wont go into specifics, but;
Is it; a) wrong, b)legal, or illegal, as an employer to (and in what circumstances would it be right?) to read e-mails between two employees, without their knowledge?
If the emails were sent or received through company equipment then the company is entitled to do what it likes with them. (That would include web mail access to 3rd party mail services from a company machine.) The only time I can see it being illegal is if the employee had a contract which entitled them to privacy when using company resources for private purposes, and that's a pretty strange thing for an employer to agree to.I wont go into specifics, but;
Is it; a) wrong, b)legal, or illegal, as an employer to (and in what circumstances would it be right?) to read e-mails between two employees, without their knowledge?
I have set up a journal account for company directors on occasions that captures every email that is sent and recieved and when I first asked about the legality of this I was told that if there was a policy in place there could be no comeback. It is used often in sacking cases and to build cases against.
DonnyMac said:
Adam T said:
DonnyMac said:
Almost definitely legal.
Either there will be an email use policy or you're supposed to be working whilst at work thus all incoming and outgoing emails are work related - if there's anything else it's misconduct.
Some emails maybe gross misconduct - out the door time.
If you explain a bit more you'll get a definitive answer in the morning from a legal type.
If your employer has just given you the boot it will probably not be for personal emails, even if that's what is cited.
ETA - are you off sick, has your employer checked your emails whilst you're off (for business purposes) then found all your job application emails (or worse)?
Edited by DonnyMac on Thursday 19th February 19:36
E-mails have been read by very senior authority, and I am not sure what to make of it. just wanted to see if I need to have a word for it, as things are going to come out... just wnated to make sure were covered.
It will be important to view the policy and check whether everyone is aware of it / has agreed to it.
The pc, the connection and the power are likely to belong to the employer I suspect. They should have policies in place to remind people of legal issues (e.g. Computer Misuse Act) and the organisational policy towards usage. Often 'reasonable' usage is allowed (try and define that one) or usage during lunch breaks.
It makes sense to point out to new starters exactly what the policy and expectations are, such as emails may be monitored (usually personal ones won't be looked at), what will be looked at, what the consequences of actions are etc.
Reasonable usage can complicate things for people like me who will investigate 'anomolies'. There is also the element of time theft, doing private things in offcial time. That is partly why some organisations operate zero tolerance policies.
IMO it is reasonable for an employer to check email usage if there are reasonable grounds to suspect breach of policy or legislation. It is not normally acceptable to read emails that are clearly private. I would always have a witness with me if I was doing it to cover me.
Some systems (such as ours) look like you can delete emails but they can always be retreived (I'm no techie but I assume others may be similar).
Hope that helps a bit
The pc, the connection and the power are likely to belong to the employer I suspect. They should have policies in place to remind people of legal issues (e.g. Computer Misuse Act) and the organisational policy towards usage. Often 'reasonable' usage is allowed (try and define that one) or usage during lunch breaks.
It makes sense to point out to new starters exactly what the policy and expectations are, such as emails may be monitored (usually personal ones won't be looked at), what will be looked at, what the consequences of actions are etc.
Reasonable usage can complicate things for people like me who will investigate 'anomolies'. There is also the element of time theft, doing private things in offcial time. That is partly why some organisations operate zero tolerance policies.
IMO it is reasonable for an employer to check email usage if there are reasonable grounds to suspect breach of policy or legislation. It is not normally acceptable to read emails that are clearly private. I would always have a witness with me if I was doing it to cover me.
Some systems (such as ours) look like you can delete emails but they can always be retreived (I'm no techie but I assume others may be similar).
Hope that helps a bit
I did it once to check up on an employee because I was worried he was giving information to a competitor.
He wasnt but I did find out that he was sending stacks of private emails to friends and family. Not so bad but coupled with the fact that he did farrrrkkkk all meant it was good enough to fire him out the door.
He wasnt but I did find out that he was sending stacks of private emails to friends and family. Not so bad but coupled with the fact that he did farrrrkkkk all meant it was good enough to fire him out the door.
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