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Articles
Monday June 5, 2006
More workers axed for E-mails
When in doubt, leave it out - especially concerning E-mails.
An increasing number of workers are losing their jobs because of E
mail violations, according to an annual survey of about 300
companies released today.
A third of employers in the study sacked staffers in the past year
for violating workplace E-mail policies. That's up from about one in
four last year.
"People don't see a difference between phone conversations and E
mail - but legally, there's a really big difference," said Keith
Crosley of tech firm Proofpoint, which conducted the survey with
Forrester Consulting.
The participants came from public companies, higher education,
government and nonprofits with 1,000 employees or more.
Nearly 40% of the employers in the survey have staffers whose job is
to read other staffers' E-mails. And almost half the employers
regularly check the contents of the E-mails their people send.
An alarming number of workers don't realize they're being watched -
and could get in trouble - despite highly publicized corporate
scandals.
Prosecutors used incriminating E-mails to help build their criminal
case against Enron founder and former CEO Ken Lay - and now he's
facing a sentence of up to 165 years behind bars.
Former Boeing CEO Harry Stonecipher - who had been married for 50
years - was forced to resign after his affair with a female
colleague came to light.
The sexually explicit E-mails he sent her - on his company's E-mail
system - became embarrassing evidence.
Former Merrill Lynch analyst Henry Blodget praised stocks in public
but derided them as dogs in E-mails - and was barred for life from
the securities industry.
"E-mail lives on forever," Crosley said. "Big companies archive
their E-mails - they're required to, for all kinds of regulatory
reasons."
Employers have a problem with employee blogging, too.
For the first time, the survey queried companies about their
policies concerning blogs and message boards - and found 7% of the
respondents had fired people in the past year for breaking the
rules.
Retailers, wholesalers, telecom firms and utilities were among the
most likely firms to fire workers because of E-mail infractions,
Crosley said.
Employers weren't asked exactly why workers got the ax. But Crosley
has heard plenty of anecdotes.
Some firms have rules against using the company E-mail for personal
messages - and that's all it takes.
Another likely firing offense is sending messages with "unacceptable
content" - such as racist or sexist jokes, or smutty stories or
pictures.
Other people lose their jobs because they use workplace E-mail for
criminal behavior like stealing customers' credit card or Social
Security numbers, he said.
Employers have good reason to worry about employee E-mails. In the
past year, a quarter of those in the survey were ordered by courts
or regulators to hand over E-mail records. But the survey suggests
they aren't doing enough to prevent misconduct.
Though more than 80% of these firms have written policies outlining
acceptable E-mail use, just half gave workers formal training on E
mail policies in the past year.
Crosley hopes the survey is a wake-up call to managers to educate
their employees about acceptable E-mail usage.
Workers should ask bosses or tech departments what the rules are -
pronto.
And they should remember Crosley's rule of thumb:
"At work, don't put anything in an E-mail you wouldn't want the
whole world to see."
BY LORE CROGHAN
DAILY NEWS BUSINESS WRITER
Visit The Weekly News at http://TheWeeklyNews.info
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Moonlight cop caught using badge
A New York City police officer moonlighting as a private eye has
pleaded guilty to using his badge to get into a woman's apartment.
In 2004, Michael Rosato was moonlighting for a Long Island private
investigation company that was hired by Kim Spencer to investigate
the girlfriend of her estranged husband -- Chris Spencer, HBO's
senior vice president of creative services -- the New York Daily
News reported.
Rosato is accused of identifying himself as a police officer to
enter the woman's apartment. He allegedly said he was investigating
an assault, the newspaper said.
If convicted by a jury, Rosato would have faced a minimum of 3 1/2
years. He pleaded guilty to official misconduct and attempted
burglary, both felonies, the newspaper said.
By Big News Network
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or join our mailing list to get weekly updates
at http://yourdesign2.com/mailinglist.htm
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Ground Zero workers suing New York City
A federal lawsuit has been filed on behalf of more than 8,000 people
who worked at Ground Zero, claiming proper respirators were not made
available.
While 400,000 air-filtering masks were distributed to workers at
Ground Zero, The New York Times reports that lawyers representing
the workers claim most workers were given faulty masks or none at
all.
New York City has been named the principal government defendant in
the case. Attorneys for the city have already moved to have the
lawsuit dismissed.
In papers already filed with the court, the Times reports the city
argues that concern for the health and safety of all workers and
volunteers at the (World Trade Center) site began immediately after
the Sept. 11 attacks and continued until the end of the rescue,
recovery and debris removal operations.
By Big News Network
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Senate to tackle gay marriage ban
President Bush and congressional Republicans are aiming the
political spotlight this week on efforts to ban gay marriage, with
events at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue — all for a
constitutional amendment with scant chance of passage but wide
appeal among social conservatives.
"Ages of experience have taught us that the commitment of a husband
and wife to love and to serve one another promotes the welfare of
children and the stability of society," Bush said in his weekly
radio address. "Government, by recognizing and protecting marriage,
serves the interests of all."
The president was to make further remarks Monday in favor of the
amendment as the Senate opened three days of debate.
All but one of the Senate Democrats — the exception is Ben Nelson of
Nebraska — oppose the measure and, with moderate Republicans, are
expected to block an up-or-down vote, killing the measure for the
year.
Democrats say the amendment is a divisive bow to religious
conservatives, and point out that it conflicts with the GOP's
opposition to big government interference.
"A vote for this amendment is a vote for bigotry pure and simple,"
said Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (news, bio, voting record) of
Massachusetts, where the state Supreme Court legalized gay marriages
in 2003.
Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco, which in 2004 began issuing
marriage licenses to gay couples, on Monday denounced Bush's move as
predictable and "stale rhetoric" aimed at rallying conservatives for
this year's midterm elections.
"It's politics. It's pandering and it's placating a core
constituency, the evangelicals," Newsom said on ABC's "Good Morning
America."
Fueled by election-year politics, the gay marriage issue is the most
volatile Congress will consider as it returns from a weeklong
Memorial Day recess.
Other legislation has better chances for success, particularly a
record-size emergency spending bill to continue U.S. military
operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and provide hurricane relief
along the Gulf Coast.
The Pentagon says it needs its money — about $66 billion — right
away or delays could begin to affect the conduct of the war in Iraq.
The Senate added new relief for farmers and other aid to the
package, swelling its cost to more than $100 billion. Bush is
demanding that the price tag stick within his $92.2 billion request,
plus $2.3 billion to combat avian flu.
An agreement could be passed this week.
The House is expected to consider a $32 billion spending bill that
would give the Homeland Security Department $1.8 billion more in
2007 than this year. It also is likely to send Bush a Senate-
approved bill to raise indecency fines tenfold, to $325,000 per
violation, for television and radio broadcasters.
Meanwhile, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing
Tuesday on government surveillance of journalists who publish
classified information, the result of probes into published reports
on secret prisons overseas and the Bush administration's domestic
wiretapping program.
An election-year debate on the constitutional amendment to define
marriage as a union between a man and a woman was never in doubt,
however doomed the legislation. As Republicans geared up to defend
their majorities in the House and Senate, conservative groups
earlier this year let them know that they were dissatisfied with the
GOP's efforts on several social issues, including gay marriage.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a possible presidential candidate
in 2008, promptly placed the amendment on the floor schedule, with
Bush's promotion central to the plan.
In his Saturday radio address, Bush cast the amendment as a defense
of the stability of society and a strike back at judges who have
overturned state laws similar in intent to the proposed legislation.
"In our free society, people have the right to choose how they live
their lives," Bush said. "And in a free society, decisions about
such a fundamental social institution as marriage should be made by
the people, not by the courts."
Sen. Joseph Biden (news, bio, voting record), D-Del., said Sunday
that the amendment is unnecessary. "We already have a law, the
Defense of Marriage Act. ... Nobody has violated that law. There's
been no challenge to that law. Why do we need a constitutional
amendment?" Biden said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
Parliamentary maneuvers were likely to sink the amendment for the
year. Senate procedure requires two days of debate before the 100
member Senate decides — 60 votes are required — whether to consider
the amendment on an up-or-down vote.
By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer
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