An unnamed Kinokawa City municipal worker has been demoted and faces a pay cut after it was discovered he was viewing pornographic websites while at the workplace. In nine months the worker racked up over 780,000 hits to various websites from his office computer. A council investigation was prompted after the worker repeatedly reported computer viruses on his workstation.

The municipal worker is lucky to keep his job. As I have lamented before, checking your personal email, your facebook account, and generally surfing the internet for non-work matters can be interpreted as theft of time and can lead to an employee’s dismissal with cause. Employees should always remember to review all computer policies in place and use discretion when logging on.

For more on the Kinokawa City worker story see:

Canadian employment law today
BBC News

Daniel A. Lublin is a Toronto Employment Lawyer specializing in the law of wrongful dismissal.  He can be reached at [email protected] or visit www.toronto-employmentlawyer.com