Employers Coping with Employee Internet Abuse

A survey performed by Personnel Today and Internet filter company Websense Inc. shows that almost one in four U.K. companies have fired employees for Internet misuse. Without an Internet use policy, companies may face unfair dismissal charges by a terminatedemployee or discrimination and constructive dismissal charges by offended co-workers. In Canada, http://www.internetaddiction.ca is a website devoted to the harmful effects of, well, websites. According to the July 2000 Angus Reid data summarized in their related article, 78% of Canadians who use Internet at work did so for personal reasons, and this personal use accounted for 26% of all Internet use at work. For additional information on the U.K. matter, visit: http://www.guardian.co.uk/internetnews/story/0,7369,752152,00.html. To read a concise discussion of the issue of workplace surveillance of employee Internet and email use by Prof. Michael Geist of the University of Toronto, visit: http://aix1.uottawa.ca/~geist/frameset.html http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992520.