Staff email misuse proves costly for businesses

Business owners have received a wake-up call over the potential consequences of staff email abuse, after a woman successfully brought a sexual harassment case against her former employer and was awarded £10,000 in compensation.

The woman, who remains unnamed, unearthed a number of offensive email messages written about her by nine of her colleagues.

When the company failed to take her formal complaint seriously, the woman left her job and took her employers to court.

Julie Mellor of the Equal Opportunities Commission said, ‘the fact that comments are made by email doesn’t mean they should be treated any less seriously than if they were spoken or written down’.

Business bosses are being advised to ensure that they have clear policies on harassment and IT usage. They are also urged to take complaints seriously, and to deal with them immediately via official company complaints procedures.