Porn in the workplace ruling not a green light for hijinks

The Victorian issue with Australia Post involved a loose workplace culture and how Australia Post finally addressed it, by dismissing three staff members.

After they lost their initial appeal last year against their dismissal, the three workers took their case to the Full Bench of Fair Work Australia.

However one of the three commissioners hearing the case disagreed with his colleagues and backed Australia Post's actions in sacking the men.

Fair Work Deputy President Michael Lawler and Commissioner Anna Lee Cribb ruled that bosses could not automatically sack a worker for distributing porn to colleagues. It was a form of misconduct to which the same general principles apply as in all unfair dismissal matters involving misconduct.

The commissioners found that Australia Post should have considered the length of service - between 11 and 17 years - of the men it sacked before it made its decision.

Fair Work also found there was no evidence of harm caused by the three workers sending porn to their friends at work, and particularly that Australia Post had done nothing for several years to enforce its own standards on its workforce and that managers over the years had received the material and done nothing to warn employees that its distribution was against the workplace rules.

So it’s a mistaken perception to think the porn floodgates have been opened in the workplace. It’s really Fair Work telling employers to have policies and rules and enforce them and not allow a culture of indifference to prevail.

It’s a wakeup call for employers to have clear and enforceable policies about the distribution of objectionable, explicit material in the workplace, and enforce them.