By Jo Best, 31 October 2006 12:50
NEWS
An ongoing investigation into the distribution of pornographic content in emails at the DVLA has led to a further 65 staff facing disciplinary action.
The investigation centres on the DVLA's Swansea base, where the 65 staff have been charged with gross misconduct and could face being fired if found to have broken the Agency's code of conduct.
A statement from the Agency said: "The investigation will follow our normal procedures and all concerned will have the opportunity to respond to the charge."
A spokesman for the DVLA told silicon.com a small proportion of the emails that spurred the disciplinary action are pornographic. The rest are either offensive or obscene.
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The new misconduct charges come as part of the DVLA's ongoing investigation into inappropriate use of email.
Earlier this year, the Agency sacked 14 employees after it found they had been abusing the email system to distribute porn images, contravening the DVLA's policy on email use.
More than 100 staff were also disciplined as a result of the June probe, although only those found to have passed on the most shocking images lost their jobs following the investigation.
Comments
There are 4 comments. Join the discussion
1. anonymous
Downloading porn or sending porn type emails to friends may not be very tasteful and it may break the Computer Misuse Act or other statutes, but I think it is time we stopped being a nanny state regarding the It snooping on employees. the filtering software in colleges is currently reducing student attainment as most of the IT administrators do not know how to set up the filters to stop excessive blocking. Dansguardian please take note as you cause more problem than anything!
2. Karen Challinor
And of coursee government employees are above reproach and cannot be corrupted or swayed from their duty, so the ID card database, whatever form it takes, will be safe from those who administer it as well, so no need to worry there then
3. Roger Huffadine
Get a life - sacking people for exchanging porn? Come on - discipline for breaking rules is OK but unless you are downsizing why sack staff? I pay enough in taxes without it being swallowed up in recruiting 65 new staff for the DVLA. The whole problem has arisen because managers have not been managing and a small manageable problem has escalated beyond the ability of the managers. Maybe its time to look at a few 'management' sackings for letting the situation get to the stage where 64 staff need investigating. OK sorry I'm sure I posted that last time we had this debacle.
4. Chris Goodman
The use of an employer's time to send or received private emails or to surf the web for private purposes is nothing less than THEFT. During working hours an employee's time belongs wholly to the employer who is paying for it.
I know from experience that such traffic is endemic within public services and it should be stopped.
Such misuse should be a matter for instant dismissal.