[Air-l] Internet ethics

[Gail Taylor]

Hi everyone,

I'm starting to track the manner in which employees are 
being disciplined by their employers for using Internet-
based technologies during their on- and off-duty work hours. 
I came across a news story this morning that might be of 
interest to others of you who might be doing the same. 

An administrative judge in the U.S. has ruled that "surfing 
the web is equivalent to reading a newspaper or talking on 
the phone" in workplace settings. The employee in question 
works for a government agency. Do you think this ruling is 
one that private sector employers will see as a signal to 
rethink and restructure current definitions of employee 
appropriate use of Internet-based technologies? 

-- Gail

Gail Taylor, M.Ed.
Human Resource Education Ph.D. Student
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

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Judge: Web-Surfing Worker Can't Be Fired
 
Saying surfing the web is equivalent to reading a newspaper 
or talking on the phone, an administrative law judge has 
suggested that only a reprimand is appropriate as punishment 
for a city worker accused of failing to heed warnings to 
stay off the Internet.

Administrative Law Judge John Spooner reached his decision 
in the case of Toquir Choudhri, a 14-year veteran of the 
Department of Education who had been accused of ignoring 
supervisors who told him to stop browsing the Internet at 
work.

The ruling came after Mayor Michael Bloomberg fired a worker 
in the city's legislative office in Albany earlier this year 
after he saw the man playing a game of solitaire on his 
computer.

In his decision, Spooner wrote: "It should be observed that 
the Internet has become the modern equivalent of a telephone 
or a daily newspaper, providing a combination of 
communication and information that most employees use as 
frequently in their personal lives as for their work."

He added: "For this reason, city agencies permit workers to 
use a telephone for personal calls, so long as this does not 
interfere with their overall work performance. Many agencies 
apply the same standard to the use of the Internet for 
personal purposes."

Spooner dispensed the lightest possible punishment on 
Choudhri, a reprimand, after a search of Choudhri's computer 
files revealed he had visited several news and travel sites.

Martin Druyan, Choudhri's lawyer, called the ruling "very 
reasonable."