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Ian Buckland suggested:

  I believe the safest route is to make it a breach of contract to use the 
  Internet for anything other than work purposes. 

It is difficult to see how such a provision could be enforced unless the employer could be entirely clear what constitutes use for work purposes. If the employer says it's a breach of contract to use the Internet for anything other than work purposes but custom and practice is to allow its use for, say, checking weather forecasts, booking tickets or using personal web-based e-mail accounts the restriction won't be a contractual term anyway. A disciplinary rule should make clear to the employee what's allowed and what's not, so far as reasonably practicable.

If I may draw an analogy, the employer might say telephones should only be used for work purposes. A worker will be justifiably aggrieved if this is generally allowed but s/he is punished for it according to an additional, possibly arbitrary, rule. In most workplaces employees know that they can use the 'phone for personal purposes within reason. Before sanctioning people, some kind of definition and warning is required.

Paul Hubert


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