Discplinary

Zazen999

MrsMcLaren wrote: »

Right, I had a chat with him yesterday about and sorted out what approach he will take in the meeting( very, very much the I'm-so-sorry-it-was-so-stupid-I-will-never-do-it-again approach!)

There was no text sent with the pictures, as the male colleagues initially saw them on his screen and said words to the effect of 'Aw mate send us a copy!'. I wish he hadn't done so


Thanks for all replies and sorry I haven't replied individually to each comment. You've all been very helpful and non-judgemental which we both truly truly appreciate.

We're just going to have to wait for the meeting now and see what happens.

Um, why was he looking at [presumably] semi-naked images of colleagues in work time, on a work computer?

Would be my next query on this one; if I was investigating this.

hothothot_3

Actually, the irony here is that he has been safer if he has sent this picture at work time. This is because if I was the employee I would probably raise a criminal complaint that he has commited an offence under the telecommunications act 1984.

(1) A person who— (a)
sends, by means of a public telecommunication system, a message or other matter that is grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character;

shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale or both.

Anyway that would have been one of my options if I was an employee, but im sure most people are unaware of this act, so I wouldnt lose too much sleep (your friend that is). Also why I said he was lucky is that it has to be sent via a public communications system - if the email was sent via INTRAnet then that might not apply. (depends on how the system is configured)

caeler

Go with the remorse, the I’ve done bad, I realise that, I’ll never do it again, I’ve really learnt my lesson, I value my job, etc. Get him to try and focus on the actual sending round the material against the IT policy rather than what the picture was and who it was of. Id’ try and steer the panel to the IT policy, its quite irrelevant that it was an ex colleague. I’d imagine as part of the investigation his colleagues were questioned but if I were your friend I’d try and keep them out of it. It might be worth reviewing what procedures have been used (ie. right to representative) but being picky on the rules might anger the panel and suggest he’s looking for ways out rather than deal with the consequences.

DesG

Can someone clarify what exactly this person is being disciplined for?

As far as I can see the only thing he is guilty of is slacking

It sounds like the image itself is not obscene or indecent. It is not private as it is posted willingly to the public. So I am struggling to see the issue apart from using IT equipment for non work purposes.

I doubt that the company has a policy of classifying use of IT equipment for non work purposes as gross misconduct. (Or there would be a lot more people being sacked where I work

Cheers, Des.

willsonline

doesn't seem like Gross Misconduct to me...

zzzLazyDaisy

willsonline wrote: »

doesn't seem like Gross Misconduct to me...

The conduct complained of could well amount to GM under the company's policies and procedures. You couldn't know whether is is likely to be viewed by the company as GM without first seeing the company's disciplinary procedure/IT usage policy/Equal Ops policy.

But if OP's friend is dismissed for this sort of behaviour I wouldn't rate his chances in an Employment Tribunal.

onlyforboards_2

DesG wrote: »

Can someone clarify what exactly this person is being disciplined for?

As far as I can see the only thing he is guilty of is slacking

It sounds like the image itself is not obscene or indecent. It is not private as it is posted willingly to the public.

Doesn't matter if it is a public image or not selectively sending it around the office (the person in the photograph was an employee at the time) makes it potentially a bullying situation. The fact that it is men posting an image of a woman to male colleagues only opens it up to sexual harassment (no matter what the content of the image or where it originates).

As a woman I would not want to work in an office where men pass images of other women around each other, nor would I be expected to do so.

Savvy_Sue

He may get away with it, but he really needs to read the Use of IT policy very carefully. If going on social networking sites in work time is off limits, I'd say he's definitely stuffed. If it's OK to go on them in the lunch hour, let's hope his colleague saw it in the lunch hour.

That may or may not be gross misconduct, but we need to add to it the content of what was sent. If the former colleague complained, then the defence of "she asked for it by not wearing enough clothes at work and putting them on that site in the first place" is unlikely to hold up for long. It's sexual harassment if the other party perceives it as such, and one person's harmless fun is another's serious distress.

I do wonder where men keep their brains sometimes ...

SueC_2

Grovel, grovel, grovel and grovel some more.

And hope that previous performance / his standing in the company is good enough to in some way balance out the stupidity of this single incident.

I'm interested to hear how this one turns out. Keep us posted!

Pete111

Lots of comment re policies, timescales, exact nature of the offence /pics etc etc.

Lets cut to the chase. Doing something like this to a work colleague can justifiably be classed as gross misconduct on so many levels they are almost too numerous to list. No ifs. No buts.

The employee can in all fairness be sacked and as they would almost certainly not win a tribunal in claiming unfair dismissal the company may well take this option. In addition, there is a recent precedent in the company of this type of offence being the reason to sack 2 other employees. This does not bode well I'm afraid.

My advice (as others have said ) is that this individual needs to grovel like his job depends on it. Which I'm afraid to say it very much does.

P