When someone "crosses the line" in sending dubious emails using company services, one option is to fire them and that's what happened to Phillip Walker at Safe Air in Blenheim. But yesterday he got his job back and $1,000 award for loss of dignity and injury to his feelings. Its a salutary story at Grubby emailer wins his job back

Philip Walker said a culture of sending emails "where the content was not likely to offend and was banter between colleagues" existed at his Safe Air workplace in Blenheim.

The Employment Relations Authority (ERA) found in Mr Walker's favour, awarding him $1000 for "a loss of dignity and injury to his feelings' and ordering Safe Air to reinstate him.

Mr Walker, a purchasing officer at the Air New Zealand subsidiary, was sacked in February after sending 425 non-work-related emails to colleagues and family members between March and September last year.

Safe Air said 26 of these were "emails of concern" containing explicit depictions of lewdness, nudity and/or sex acts.

The ERA found he was among a group that had contributed to a "widespread inappropriate use of emails" but it was likely Mr Walker did this because he was "not clear about the standards expected".

[...] In her conclusion, ERA member Helen Doyle said she was not satisfied that Mr Walker clearly understood Safe Air's email policies.

When he became aware in September that Safe Air was investigating email use, he stopped sending inappropriate emails.

"In the circumstances of this case where there was widespread inappropriate use of emails, a fair and reasonable employer would accept that Mr Walker was less likely to have comprehended the seriousness and inappropriateness of the nature of the emails," Ms Doyle said.

[...] Netsafe executive director Martin Cocker said sackings over the misuse of email or the internet were common.

He said companies had to have effective internet and email technology policies that were explained clearly and understood by staff.

"One of the main defences we see is people saying, 'I didn't understand what it meant' ... It looks like this was the case here."

If you don't already have one, Netsafe has a template Staff Cybersafety Use Agreement that you can use, or check yours against.

Like all such agreements however, its not the document that matters, its the implementation and monitoring. While your staff may have signed the agreement, do they understand what it means in daily use? How do you check that and what are your processes for monitoring and enforcement?

Netsafe is an excellent organisation that has plenty of resources and training kits available.

What's your experience in this area? Comments please.

Welcome back to Groupings blog. Now that you are a regular, please feel free to comment on any story that you feel comfortable with.