The employment Code of Conduct--that can't get me fired, can it?

• Author: Bowal, Peter
• Position: Special Report: Employment Law

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It is important to situate a document like the Code of Conduct in the larger workplace context. Employers have the right to set the ethical, professional and operational standards for their workplaces. Doing so not only falls within an employer's management rights, it also constitutes an integral component of corporate good governance. The workplace is not an employee's home; and employees have no reasonable expectation of privacy in their workplace computers.

Poliquin v. Devon Canada Corporation, 2009 ABCA 216

Introduction

Many employees today use their workplace computers for some personal use, mostly to surf the web, read and send emails, and even do online shopping. Often, employees forward humorous emails of pictures, links and jokes to friends, co-workers and family.

To an employee, it may not seem wrong to send such emails and attachments, but the employer and some recipients may not see it the same way. Some messages may be interpreted as racist, obscene, sexist, pornographic or otherwise objectionable by co-workers. And not all recipients, including those monitoring the employer's server, will get the joke.

Likewise, what are employees to do with a business gift offered by a customer, such as a bottle of wine or a seat in the clients corporate box at the hockey game? They would not have been offered these goodies without being in their positions at work, and who knows what integrity and objectivity might be compromised by indulging in these treats. Both inappropriate use of the computer and acceptance of gifts might violate employees' Codes of Conduct, leading to discipline, including termination, by their employers.

Most Canadian companies with a workplace computer policy can track usage, websites visited and key strokes. Their surveillance of these seemingly innocent and commonplace workplace activities can produce evidence of violations of internal employment Codes of Conduct. An employment Code of Conduct or Employee policy manual sets out the private rules of the workplace, including such matters as computer usage policy, agency and signing authority, alcohol and drug use, hiring of family members, abusive interactions such as harassment, receipting and expense accounting, and conflicts of interest around things like gifts and hospitality.

Personal access to blogging at work and to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have caught up with people in some high profile cases. The personal use of...