Lisa Aitken of Aitken Legal writes:
The Fair Work Commission has found that an employee who approached a competitor of his employer and divulged personal information about his current boss and the business was not unfairly dismissed.
In the case, the employer and the employee had already agreed in August last year that the employee’s employment would cease on December 31 last year.
With the permission and encouragement of the employer, the employee began seeking alternative employment.
Subsequently, the employee used his company email address to send an email to a competitor of the employer.
Among other things, that email stated:
- That his boss had become “difficult and most unpleasant”;
- That his boss left his wife and kids and had an affair with the office manager; and
- The business had just lost one of its biggest accounts and his boss was “struggling”.
Initially, when the employer was alerted to the email, the employee denied sending it.
The employer subsequently took action to investigate and then terminate the employee for serious misconduct.
Read more on Sunshine Coast Daily.
Sheesh. Using the office email account to send such emails? Apart from the defamation aspect, and revelation of corporate information, did this employee have no idea that workplace emails could be and would be monitored?