Browsing online is not a sackable offence

In a recent employment tribunal ruling, an accountancy administrator has received more than £14,000 after it was found that the time she spent on websites such as Rightmove and Amazon was not ‘excessive’.

L was sacked from her role at an accountancy firm, in July 2023 after her employer used spyware to track her computer and they subsequently found out she had been using it for personal matters. During the tribunal, the judge concluded the owner of the firm which employed L wanted to dismiss her before she had two years’ service when she could claim for unfair dismissal.  They had failed to calculate her length of service correctly.

The spyware had been placed on L’s computer in July 2023 and over two days recorded she spent one hour,  24 minutes on personal matters.  The Judge said that a large proportion of the time had actually been used for professional development including excel training and there was no rule to prevent L from using her computer for personal use.  No policies had been shown to her to indicate she couldn’t do so, and she was free to use her computer personally when work commitments permitted and during breaks.  She had no history of conduct problems and had not received any warnings.

The tribunal concluded there were not reasonable grounds to support a conclusion that L was guilty of misconduct nor was there a reasonable investigation carried out. Dismissal was outside of the band of reasonable responses available to a reasonable employer in the circumstances.  Given the fact that there was no prohibition on personal computer use and the amount of time L devoted to personal matters during the two days had not been shown to be excessive, there was no deduction for contributory fault.  There was no evidence to support the conclusion that L would have been dismissed in the event a fair process had been followed.

As no procedure was followed and L was dismissed without an opportunity to explain herself, an uplift of 20% was made in the award to her for failing to follow the ACAS Code.

This is once again a reminder to employers that they must have clear workplace procedures in place which are communicated to all staff and if they have any concerns regarding an employee’s behaviour, they should follow their disciplinary procedures to investigate fully.

If you need support updating work place procedures or carrying out a disciplinary process, get in touch with our team today.