Posted by: Marker | Uncategorized | 22.08.2006
A Whangarei man was today convicted of theft, and fined for inappropriately using the Internet at work.
Whangarei District Court heard (the perp), 40, downloaded pornography and music videos while using a computer at the Poster Faktory in the town.
Let’s just be clear here – this had nothing to do with the subject matter. He wasn’t charged over the porn. Or the music downloads. He was busted for stealing his employer’s bandwidth. That is really scary.
Why are you scared? This is clearly a breach of acceptable employee conduct and is in effect stealing. I’m not sure the $100 fine is going to be much of a disincentive. It is not like he is going to to hard time.
It’s not so much that I’m scared, as i see this as a dusturbing precedent for NZ labour relations. Based on this decision, pretty much anyone could lose their job and get hauled through the courts (necessary in order to make the summary dismissal justified) at any time.