French Employee Dismissed for 178 Personal Emails to a Colleague

MGG Legal explains a dismissal case for misconduct, upheld  by the French Supreme Court.

Over a three-month period, a maintenance technician had sent to his colleagues many personal videos from his professional computer, including 178 e-mails to one single person.

He was dismissed for misconduct. Although the employer proved neither the impact on the company’s image, nor the employee’s negligence in his duties, which until now were key factors, the French Supreme Court upheld the dismissal (18 December 2013).

The key findings in this case are that the employee had infringed the company’s e-mail policy, which prohibited using e-mail for personal purposes, and that he had disrupted the work of his colleagues by sending so many non-professional e-mails.

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