Personal Email rights

Just posting up here to see what the situation is with company's reading your personal email. I am doing this on behalf of a friend who is having trouble at work.

The company itself has hired a person to go through everybodys computer to find somthing that they can sack them for.
So far there have been 9 or 10 sackings and alot of warnings . Some of these have been for sending personal emails to your friends.

I have been told that there is a new law that companys cannot read your personal email. Is this correct, does anybody know about this kind of thing ?

Shelflife

Afaik they cant read your personal emails as in your private account , but anything sent in a company email belongs to them and they can read them.

leeroybrown

They shouldn't read your personal (ie. offsite non-company systems) e-mail. If they have a suitable Internet/network usage policy in place they could still take issue with the use of work systems for personal e-mail use. On the other hand, if the e-mail they're reading was sent via the company e-mail system then it's their property and all bets are off.

People should *never* *ever* use their company e-mail account for non-work purposes.

kenco

This is not definitive just what I know from experience....

The email system and the mails therein are the companys property and should not be misused. However there was a test case around this a couple of year back which likened email to the use of the phone, i.e. unless specifically forbidden there has to be an acceptable amount of non work related usage. This usage however has limits so sending anything dodgy (porn, racism, bullying, etc) is very likely to get you the chop. This includes forwarding or not deleting anything you get of this nature.

Sending personal emails that are not of the type above should not get you sacked unless you were specifically told that the email system was not for any personal use. Unless ths has happened, is documented and is regularly updated/communicated I think any sackings for pure personal use are potentially unfair

Another thought, if someone has been sent in for this then the chances are something dodgy has been going on (i.e. not personal stuff) and that they are sacking because of misuse (in the unaccetable use) context. The would need someone in for legal reasons to ensure that the mails in question could be used as evidence.

Buffman

Deleted User wrote: »

So far there have been 9 or 10 sackings and alot of warnings . Some of these have been for sending personal emails to your friends.

They must be the 9 or 10 who didn't remember to delete their deleted items.
Do you know the exact reason they got sacked?

Personal stuff should be kept to your gmail or similar. If there is no internet access then just be extra careful with work email.

trad

Is it unreasonable to expect people to work for the company while they are being paid? Time spent on private emails (and surfing the web) is time that you are not gainfully employed. Maybe the company has an issue with the amount of time being wasted by staff keeping in contact with their friends when they should be working.

Well i do know that this company is using the email as an excuse to sack these people. Its a part of their cutback process.

I know this company well as i worked there 10 years ago. I was given a warning for getting dredd locks while i was working in the call centre. I told them that a girl another girl in the team has them.

They replied "its ok for her as she is female and black"

I got a warning for not shaving and i mentioned that another guy in the team has a beard.

They replied "its ok for him because he is muslim"


Im not joking these laws are still enforced today .

Gulliver

Deleted User wrote: »

Well i do know that this company is using the email as an excuse to sack these people. Its a part of their cutback process.

I know this company well as i worked there 10 years ago. I was given a warning for getting dredd locks while i was working in the call centre. I told them that a girl another girl in the team has them.

They replied "its ok for her as she is female and black"

I got a warning for not shaving and i mentioned that another guy in the team has a beard.

They replied "its ok for him because he is muslim"


Im not joking these laws are still enforced today .

:eek: Even David Brent wouldn't come out with that.

I suspect the reading of e-mail will not come into the equation unless they were sent from the actual work account, in which case they have every right to read them, unfortuantely.

I reckon they are looking to see if anyone has accessed their personal e-mail account through a webpage. Every company should have an acceptable use policy by now and some companies actually enforce it to the letter. The Draconian hellhole described above would probably take pleasure in it!

This is the kinda company that will let you get away with it then when they need you to leave or if someody gets too big for their boots they issue a warning .

I eventually left but was given a written warning on my last day due to a sick day i had 7 months prior .

I saw alot more going on there that was just too crazy.

LegacyUser

Sounds like a horrible place to work for but yes companies legally own all emails that are sent from their system.

The flip side of that is that they can be held liable for misues of their email systems (ie if someone in the company uses the email system to distribute illegal material, the company can be held liable for damages as well as the individual).

They dont need to check computers though as all your email is held on a server in the IT dept even if you delete it its probaly still available on backups (depending on your companies back-up policy). Plus all your internet browsing history is kept on a server aswell so deleting history on your PC wont make any difference