Too few employers have wakened up to the potentially disastrous consequences of inappropriate Email and internet use by employees and could be running the risk of punitive court actions, delegates at a seminar in Dundee will hear this week, writes Ian Findlay, industrial reporter.

The stark warning will come from an employment law specialist, who says workers who use company Email to share offensive jokes or obscene images with friends are endangering their own jobs—and the future of businesses.

Celia Muller, an employment law specialist with Thorntons WS in Dundee, will tell an employment seminar at DCA tomorrow that firms need to take Email and web security as seriously as they do issues like health and safety or fire prevention.

“Internet and Email has transformed the way we do business in Scotland and opened up myriad new opportunities—but it has also exposed employers to a whole new field of risk,” she said yesterday.

“Employees can and sometimes do send inappropriate messages to their colleagues using Email, text messages from office mobile phones or other electronic communication methods. If the messages amount to harassment on the grounds of race, sex, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief, they will be unlawful.

“An example could be jokes degrading to lesbians Emailed by employees to one another. Even if the intention was not to harass an employee, a tribunal can decide the conduct had the effect of harassing him or her.

“Computer misuse need not therefore be directed specifically at an employee in order for an employer to face a claim.”

Ms Muller said that in the 1990s a woman won a discrimination case against her employer because the men in her office spent a considerable amount of time poring over sexually explicit or obscene images downloaded from the internet.

Although most of the discussion went on in the background, one or two images and a joke toy that performed a lewd trick were drawn to her attention.

“The general atmosphere of obscenity and these specific incidents were sufficient for the employee to win an award of compensation,” she said.

“An employer is liable for acts of harasser employees whether or not he knew or approved those acts. However, there is a defence of having taken reasonable steps to prevent the harassment—and that can include having appropriate policies in place.”

Employers can also be held answerable for defamatory statements made without their know-ledge by employees.

Employees who attach obscene images to Emails also expose their employer to serious risk.

It would be unusual for an unwitting employer to be found criminally liable in such circumstances, but the availability of software technology to monitor and control employees’ use of web and Email means that the threshold for prosecution is lower than it has ever been.

“The means exists through prudent use of software and explicit company policies ... for businesses to take reasonable and effective steps to protect themselves and their employees,” said Ms Muller.

“There needs to be much greater awareness of the risks businesses can face— and what actions they must take to protect themselves.”