Internet abuse

You may have seen recent publicity involving a female employee of the Deutsch Bank who was awarded £800,000 for bullying. The Protection From Harassment Act 1997 enables anyone to bring a claim through the high court for bullying.

For employers, a very unfortunate element of this act is that even if the employer can show they have an equal opportunities policy that absolutely forbids any form of harassment, bullying or discrimination; that they have taught that to every new employee; that they have enforced the policy whenever there has been a transgression; that they have updated the policy when required; that they have properly trained members of the management team under sex, race, disability claims at tribunal, then the employer could still be liable for the actions of an employee who misbehaved, even though they had carried out everything that could be reasonably expected of them regarding an equal opportunities policy.

Therefore, if one employee does harass another then the employer will be liable. It means that you must have a very clear policy covering the whole area of equal opportunity, and you need a policy which is clear and explicit regarding the use of the internet, which absolutely forbids access to improper sites and forbids passing on downloads from these sites to other employees.

See www.professionalbroking.com for unedited version.