Electronic Communications Policy

This policy document sets out guidelines for the use of email and internet at work.

The policy identifies a number of areas where employees can create potential liabilities to the employer as follows:

(a)discrimination, harassment and bullying caused by offensive material being sourced from the Internet and circulated by the organisation's internal intranet;

(b)problems caused by the dissemination of similar material via fax and telephone;

(c)offensive messages ('flamemail') being passed via the e-mail system it not being realised that such apparently ephemeral messages are equivalent to hard copy and can be recovered as such for up to two years. Such material can also be made subject to legal disclosure rules for the purposes of legal action brought by a victim