Social Media Nightmare!

The employment tribunal has recently decided that an employer was within its rights to dismiss an employee who had sent an offensive email to a fellow employee - even though the email was sent from the employee's home computer to the colleague's home computer!

The simple fact that the email was not sent via, nor received by, the employer's computer system did not, in the view of the tribunal, mean that the employer had any less right to protect its reputation.  It does, though, create real conflict between the employer's rights and the right of the employee to privacy outside the work environment.

Beware Facebook entries!!

The end of auto renewable contracts?

Ofcom (the communications regulator) has started a consultation into a proposal to outlaw contracts which automatically renew at the end of their term and which tie the customer into a minimum repeated contract term.

The idea behind these contracts is that the customer has to "opt out" otherwise renewal takes place automatically.  Once automatic renewal has occurred then there is usually a penalty to terminate the contract early.

BT is the main provider of "rollover contracts" although several other suppliers also use them, and Ofcom estimates that 15% of UK consumers are subject to these contracts at present.

The consultation ends in May this year so with luck we might see the end of these sorts of arrangements shortly after!