Automatic dismissal for breaching a workplace porn policy not on, says Fair Work Commission

Key Points:

You should not assume that an employee who accesses, sends or receives and stores pornographic material on a work email system deserves automatic dismissal.

You discover an employee is accessing, sending or storing pornographic material on a work email system. This is in clear breach of your workplace policy, so an immediate termination seems appropriate. But is it?

A majority of the Full Bench of the Fair Work Commission has found that this does not invariably warrant termination of that employee's employment, in a decision that has clarified that this is not a special type of misconduct immune from the ordinary principles of unfair dismissal law (In B, C and D v Australian Postal Corporation T/A Australia Post [2013] FWCFB 6191).