Legal concerns in the workplace because of Internet use.

In today’s computer necessary world the laws dealing with acts or occurrences on the internet are on the rise. Therefore, there are some things an employer should do to ensure that they will not run a foul if an employee does something wrong and these tips can help an employer from doing something wrong.

The biggest concern is Employee email Polices and Privacy law.

Email is an immediate form of communication when compared to phone or hard copy letter. This is advantageous when things need to be communicated quickly but there are draw backs. Email can be easily stored, manipulated, and retrieved, even if you think you have erased it, some systems may have an automatic back up which creates a virtual footprint. If you are not sending items which could be offensive that is not a problem. however if you send an email out of anger, or send or receive a joke or photo that some may find vulgar you could have created a hostile work environment that could result in a law suit.

As an employer some of the things you should do are establish a policy concerning the use of the internet and the email system. It is not only important to establish this policy but it is equally important to make sure your clients understand it and agree to abide by it. Usually a signature page indicating they received it and understand is sufficient. The Policy should also make the employee aware that there is no expectation of privacy on their behalf with regard to use of the workspace computers and that all emails and visited sites are subject to review by the employer. The Policy should require employees follow company guidelines with respect to passwords, virus protection and downloading things to the company data base.

Polices should be established identifying email retention how long emails should be retained and at what point should it be purged. If it is relevant or important data it should be converted to the hard drive or a hard copy should be created. This is important because of discovery issues in litigation. If a company has a policy to purge email and other useless items on a regular basis, if there is litigation in the future and information was destroyed pursuant to that policy then the courts will not hold the company liable for discovery sanctions if there is no date to be had.

Employers should also create a content policy indicating that sending racist, sexist or otherwise harassing materials will not be permitted as it could create a hostile work environment. Email discovery is on the rise a good rule of thumb is “if you would not want your mother to read it, don’t write it or send it via email.

Under the Communications Decency Act of 1996, sending an email that is intended to annoy, harass, abuse or threaten another person can subject the sender to criminal penalties.

If you have employees and they are allowed to use the internet and email and you do not have an email/internet policy then contact Marc Paquette using marc@thepaquettelawfirm.com or telephone 480-993-6650