Posted on 10/03/2009 7:24:08 AM PDT by Born Conservative
Nearly 30 former Procter & Gamble workers who were fired for e-mailing pictures of naked people and off-color jokes about President Obama through the company's computers are fighting to collect unemployment benefits, saying they didn't do anything wrong because "everyone else" did it, too.
At a hearing Friday in South Scranton, the company's attorney, Ben Josielevski of Scranton, said the workers broke harassment and discrimination policies that are laid out in the company's business conduct manual, which employees are required to sign.
Twenty-nine workers at the Procter & Gamble plant in Washington Twp. near Mehoopany were fired in two rounds in July and August.
Anthony Pawluck of Greenfield Twp., who was fired July 8 after seven years at the plant, said at his hearing before Barry Chromey, the unemployment compensation referee, that he "never actually received it (the handbook)."
"Did you ever think you were violating company policy?" asked his attorney, Paul Jennings of Scranton.
"No," said Mr. Pawluck. "It was the norm. I got e-mails from some of my bosses." He said they were not fired.
Mr. Pawluck said he forwarded the e-mails to others as a way to keep morale up at the plant.
Mr. Chromey didn't seem swayed by the explanation.
"I think a box of doughnuts would have been much better for morale," Mr. Chromey said.
Mr. Chromey will decide whether Mr. Pawluck engaged in "willful misconduct," a finding that will determine if Mr. Pawluck is entitled to receive unemployment benefits.
Among the pictures presented at the hearing was one of the White House with a watermelon patch on the front lawn and the caption,"There goes the neighborhood." Other e-mails featured assorted pictures of people in various stages of undress, some of whom were riding bicycles, others who were passed out or displaying detailed tattoos on their genitals.
Throughout the hearing, Mr. Jennings asked Stephen O'Brien, the company's employee relations manager, if anyone had filed a complaint over the e-mails, and he said "No." Mr. Jennings asked why management at the plant didn't warn the employees about the e-mails before firing them.
Mr. Jennings argued that since no one complained, there was no harassment and no reason why Mr. Pawluck and the others should have been fired.
Mr. Chromey, who drummed his fingers on the desk while listening to that argument, said the company's harassment policy was put in place to protect itself from lawsuits brought by employees who were harassed on the job.
Mr. Josielevski said the company's handbook tells employees to treat other workers with respect and to use the e-mails only for company business.
work ethic or jerk ethic
You company email is NEVER Private.
It’s never private, and it’s also the sole property of the company. I only use mine for work related business.
It’s easy to get drawin into such things.
Coworkers are mostly considered ‘friends’, so humorous e-mails and off-color commentary can come easily....especially if you do this at home with non-work friends.
The policies for use of e-mail are in place to protect companies from unscupulous lawsuits made by co-workers looking to get rich.
Trust me, if the P&G workers were only warned on this, someone would have come forward to say they were “offended” and would start a lawsuit.
True! But, I wonder how many were fired for sending emails that were colorful/anti President Bush.
Typical. Act stupid and try to get away with it.
These fools should run for Congress. They’re dumb enough.
That is a really good move.
With private email, Facebook, MySpace and twitter, why would anyone use work email for private things?
One of the electricians who got fired there now works for the company I do (a competing paper company). Nice guy, excellent electrician. Their loss is our gain. We have guys who have done far worse and barely got a slap on the wrist, but being a union shop doesn’t hurt.
What does one do when all the ‘off color’ stuff comes from the President of the company?
You make a hard copy of it for "future reference" and you delete the message. You never, never forward it.
Or David Letterman...
This stuff is serious.
I know someone who was fired just for receiving offensive emails and not deleting them. The company did a review of all computers, the email was on this guy’s computer. He was let go.
He got a lawyer and eventually got a settlement from the company years later.
I know a woman who was fired for having offensive emails on her computer while she was on maternity leave. A memo came around to delete all offensive emails and that there would be a check of all computers and disciplinary action would be taken against those who still had offensive emails on their computers. She was on maternity leave, never got the message and a search of her computer found several offensive emails. She got a lawyer and sued and eventually won.
Another woman was out sick and an African American was at her desk and found material that was deemed racist in her desk drawer. (It was a list of jokes, some of which were racial). She was fired. I don’t know if she sued or not.
These are the same people that would raise holy hell if their paycheck was short by thirteen cents but can’t remember a simple rule about email in their employee’s handbook.
It’s never private, and it’s also the sole property of the company. I only use mine for work related business.
I can remember "way back when" the 386SX computers first flooded the market as cheap, entry level machines. We cobbled a few of them into a crude, do-it-yourself network to collect production data from the factory floor and shoot it into the Quality Control office for analysis. Cripes Almighty... I had to remove all the floppy drives and rig up "secret" passwords on the darn things just because some idiot on 2nd Shift tried to install some shareware games and AOL on them... and they didn't even have any modems or any other outside connection. What a PITA!!!!
"Never Write a Letter and Never Destroy One" said France's wily Cardinal Richelieu.
Both are sage advice.
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