Most employees have an email account at work. While it is assumed by employers that this is to be used for work, many employees use their work email to send occasional private messages too.

While this may seem quite normal, there are many borderline activities that may not be completely kosher, but were never ruled upon and therefore were unknowns.

Two recent cases that cam before the labor court and the rulings on these cases actually set forth a whole new chapter in work email: what is the status of the email account ? does the employer have the right to access the email accounts of his employees ? Or is this an infringement in privacy ?

 The first case was a woman who was fired while pregnant and sued the employer for infringement of the pregnant employee’s rights and woman’s employment labor laws. 

The employer claimed that her pregnancy had nothing to do with the termination and asked to submit evidence, by way of emails and documents obtained from the employee’s email account that the employer setup for her at work.

The emails, claimed the employer proved that the employee had sent her CV to potential employers and was actually searching for another position on her work-time, which the employer felt was unethical and not up to time utilization standards that he expected from his employees.

The court accepted the employer’s claims and ruled that the termination was legal due to the circumstances and evidence that was shown. The employee appealed to the National Labor Court, which overturned the ruling and found in favor of the employee.

The second case was regarding an employee who setup a self-employed business and used his work email to conduct this business on work-time. This employee was fired as well and the emails were submitted to the court as proof.

The court this time ruled in favor of the employee, the employer appealed, but the appeal was rejected.

The court issued a 90 page document which basically divides email accounts into 3 categories:

1. Email accounts owned by the employer, which are assigned to an employee for his use at work and only for work purposes.

2. Email accounts owned by the employee (usually Internet based such as Google, Yahoo, hotmail, Walla). These accounts are accessible from any computer with Internet access (unless blocked by the employer’s server).

3. Email accounts that are multi-functional – used primarily for work, but the employee uses this email account to send personal messages as well.

In the first category, the employer is allowed to access the employee’s email account freely with no restrictions or prior consent needed.

The second category can never be accessed by the employer without a court order, even though the information may be sometimes stored on the employer’s computers.

The third category can be accessed by the employer only after receiving express prior written consent from the employee.

The court also clearly outlined guidelines for all employers, for Internet and email usage in the work place. These need to be spelled out clearly in writing and should be incorporated into the contracts of all employees as well.

The bottom line is that employee’s emails are protected by law and the employer cannot read them freely just because he owns the email account or because they were written using the employer’s computer or on work-time. 

Moshe Egel-Tal, CSPP
Founder and CEO, Israpay   "making payroll simple"

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