NEWS 17

Check your company's policy on sending personal messages at work

 

 

 

SUMMARY:

 

In a landmark ruling by the European court of human rights (ECHR) an employer’s actions in reading a member of staff’s personal communications on Yahoo Messenger were deemed to be reasonable. The court ruling involving a company in Romania said it was within its rights to read the personal messages of one of its engineers, Bogdan Barbulescu, that he sent on Yahoo Messenger while he was supposed to be working. The engineer was fired after his employer discovered he was using Yahoo Messenger for communicating with his fiancee and brother, even though he had been asked to set up the account for the purpose of responding to clients’ enquiries. The employer said this was in breach of company policy.

 

 

FACTS:

 

The circumstances in which you may or may not use work email and internet for private communications;

The extent and type of private use that is allowed;

Why your emails are being monitored, the extent of the monitoring, and the means used; and

How the policy is enforced and the penalties if you breach

Daily Mail takes full control of Australian website

 

 

 

 

 

 

SUMMARY:

 

 
The Daily Mail has ended its joint venture with Nine Entertainment and taken full control of its Australian news and entertainment website.The two companies, which described the decision as mutual, announced the joint venture in 2013 with the newsroom opening in Sydney on 1 January 2014.Martin Clarke, the chief executive of the Mail Online’s global operation, said the fast-changing digital market meant 100% ownership was the best model. “I’d like to thank Nine for its sterling support since we launched two years ago to make Daily Mail Australia one of Australia’s leading news sites, but both companies felt that in a changing media landscape the needs of the website were best served by sole-ownership going forward,” he said.

 

 

FACTS:

 

• DMGT said the change in ownership will not affect management, with Peter Holder, managing director of the Australian business, continuing to report to Clarke.

• The Daily Mail Australia has approximately 2 million monthly readers and has operations in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

• Taking full control of the Australian business brings it in line with the Daily Mail’s US and UK digital operations, which are wholly owned by DMGT.