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BT Discipline Policy and Internet Misuse

7 March 2007

CWU Headquarters has recently become aware of a significant trend in discipline cases involving alleged Internet misuse. Many of these involve members who have accessed authorised sites, particularly "eBay" and "YouTube", and are then alleged to have accessed inappropriate material from within those sites.

It would be a mistake, potentially resulting in dismissal, to believe that just because a site is accessible and authorised, that all material that is contained on that site or that can be accessed from that site is similarly legitimate within the terms of BT's policies. Standards of what is and is not appropriate to access on a BT terminal in BT time need to be borne in mind at all times. It would be extremely ill-advised for anyone to disregard these standards simply because one is browsing within a site that has been freely accessed through the BT network without the intervention of the Firewall.

The safest course of action is quite simply not to access eBay or YouTube or similar sites during work time or on work equipment.

CWU Headquarters is increasingly concerned at the punitive approach taken in many areas of BT's operations with regards to Internet and email misuse, and this has been relayed vigorously to the company. However, the nature of some material that has been accessed from eBay and YouTube is clearly problematic and members need to be aware that they cannot rely on a defence that the host site was one they were authorised to access.

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