Pornographic Email - Immediate dismissal was fair
In Williams v Leeds United Football Club [2015] EWHC 376 (QB), the High Court considered whether sending a pornographic email from a work account was a repudiatory breach of contract – that is sufficiently serious that it was appropriate for the immediate termination of employment despite the fact that the email was discovered several years after it had been sent as part of a "fishing exercise" to find a reason to summarily dismiss.
Interestingly, it was held that it was a repudiatory breach of contract for a senior employee to forward an email containing pornographic images from his work email account and his employer was entitled to summarily dismiss him as his actions amounted to a breach of the implied term of mutual trust and confidence. It did not matter that the employee had forwarded the email over five years before it was discovered, or that the employer had been actively looking for a reason to avoid paying the employee's 12 months' notice pay.
Posted on 03/09/2015 by Ortolan
