adminDavies Ndumiso Sibanda
WITH many employees now having cell phones and other related electronic gadgets, which are time consuming and have an addiction thus affecting employees’ productive time, many employers are not sure of how to deal with the problem.
Jane, the wages administrator comes to work in the morning and as soon as she connects to Wi-Fi, she goes over pictures and videos match settings she couldn’t open at home, this takes here about 30 minutes and thereafter she starts forwarding some of the pictures and videos to friends who immediately start responding and an hour is gone while all this happens and that’s when Jane starts work.
An hour into preparation of payroll of the month, Steven, Jane’s cousin walks in and tells Jane of the latest (Apps) on his phone and the music that he has. Jane quickly gives Steven the password to access Wi-Fi at her workplace and asks the cousin to send her the music and put the apps on her phone.
This process takes another 20 minutes and Steven leaves. Jane pulls out her earphones and starts listening to the music while working. In the process, her boss calls her several times without response until she walks to her office only to find she is blocked by the earphones and has to touch Jane in order to get her attention because she cannot hear anything.
The given story is a common feature in the workplace today and employers are not sure how to deal with it. The legal position is that such conduct by employees where the employer’s paid time is not used appropriately is an act of misconduct where an employee can be disciplined whether the offence is in the Code of Conduct or not as it falls within the employer’s common law right to discipline an employee for acts inconsistent with implied conditions of the conduct.
The challenge for many employers is whether this is a dismissible offence or not. My answer to the question is that it depends on what the employee has done and the prejudice caused to the employer in terms of lost productive time, inconvenience to customers and others.
This means some cases would qualify for progress discipline which starts with warnings and progress dismissal. In some cases outright dismissal could be the answer.
Cases where the employer’s Wi-Fi password is given to friends or extended to personal cell phones or related gadgets without the authority of the employer are dismissal offences. The employee does not have to be told this is wrong but should reasonably know that this conduct is wrong and dismissible.
Best practices requires that the employer put in place cell phone and related gadgets policy so that the employees know how to handle such gadgets during working hours.
Some workplaces do not allow cell phones in working areas and employees can only access these gadgets during breaks. There is nothing wrong with that. Others have allowed employees to have their cell phones and only attend to emergencies.
Others have barred access to workplace Wi-Fi and others have provided filtering mechanisms on emails and other related services so as to limit what the employee can receive.
There are also times where employers have abused employees because they know employees have cell phones and related gadgets for example employees are called during their private time at home with the employer spending a lot of time discussing work and in worse cases these calls come in the middle of the night when the employee is asleep and the employer demanding answers.
In some instances, emails are sent to employees with documents and reports that end up consuming the entire private time of the employee. Such conduct by employers is unlawful and the worker will be within his rights to raise a complaint.
In conclusion, employers should manage the challenge related to cell phones and related gadgets in a manner that allows for people to do work they are hired to do and only allow the use of these gadgets when it is absolutely necessary.
Davies Ndumiso Sibanda can be contacted on:
email: [email protected]
Or cell No: 0772 375 235
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