Don´t say you haven´t been warned!

Do you surf the internet during working hours? Be careful, because if you abuse the privilege too much the company could fire you.

For a long time now, using the computer resources provided by the company (such as the internet or email) for employees “private purposes” has provoked many controversies, and will continue to cause a lot more.

The High Court has now established general criteria that should be taken into consideration for these matters. Firstly, that all of the resources in question must be work tools provided by the company to the employees with the purpose that they be used for professional purposes, and secondly that the employer has previously established the rules of usage for these resources.

It is common practice that the employer will allow a certain margin of tolerance in terms of reasonableness for the private use thereof, but it is necessary that the employer has informed his employees of the measures that will be adopted if required, to guarantee effective professional use. Otherwise, the employees´ intimacy fundamental rights may be violated.

The employer is able to adopt any control measures that it considers appropriate, with the objective of verifying the employees' fulfillment of their employment obligations and duties.

What companies have learned now is that they need an internal code of practice in order to explain to employees what they can do and what they can´t do, and to inform them that the use of the computer resources may be controlled. In this way they can protect themselves if an employee chooses to abuse their use of the computer.

The reflection of this High Court´s learning has been the recent ruling issued by the Superior Court of Justice of La Rioja (25^th may 2011). This sentence confirms that it is fair to dismiss an employee who surfs “Facebook” in their working time when established rules are included in an internal handbook. Furthermore, the company in question had warned the employee several times of the consequences his conduct would cause.

If you have been warned that you are abusively using the internet at work you should be careful, because the next time it occurs you could be fired.

Don´t say you haven´t been warned!

Written by labour law specialist Fatima Vera