Difficult Legal/ethical situation at work

dudleyjackson

Free Member
Jul 2, 2012
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Hi all, any help given in this will help . I will try and detail the situation as concisely as possible.

People.

Dave: Area Manager with responsibility for 3 branches of general retail store. In role approx 5 year, previous business experience /expertise unknown.

Trevor. Web/ email administrator, little known . Works closely with Dave.

Ruth. Retail store manager, has run own business, over 10 years running this branch of retail store. Conversant with most modern business practices.

Me. Shop worker. Customer service/retail background, business student [mature].

Situation: An Email stating Ruth's concerns about updating payment methods has "gone missing" from Ruth's employee email account, Ie, the email is no longer in her sent items box. Ruth is assiduous about keeping /retaining company communications. The email was sent to both top level management and Dave.

The time it was sent is important, because it shows that Ruth had tried to contact Dave about her concerns SHORTLY before Dave telephoned Her to ask how the store was running, contrary to his usual "seagull manager" practices.

I knew about the email [and general terms of it's content] at time of writing and we have records of the time and date it was sent.
On first examination, it would seem [from Ruth's knowledge of Dave and Trevor] that Dave has asked Trevor to hack or access Ruth;s email to remove it and "eliminate" evidence that she queried him before he queried her.

What I want to know are the legalities of accessing employee email without their permission AND/or without suspicion of wrongdoing on the employees part. Although I admit almost total legal ignorance, I believe that Dave and/or Trevor are guilty of breaching the electronic communications act {ECA] 2005 - and possibly other legislation such as the data protection act [DPA].

The reason the whole thing is important is because Dave is suspected,by branch staff, of "running his own game" behind the scenes. Everyone is wondering what the score is.

Proof and such will be difficult- please help my ability to express this situation is running dry and i now have a headache thinking about it.

Thanks for any help given and your time in reading this muddle.

Please note : all names have already been changed.
 
Last edited:

Paul_Rosser

Free Member
Jul 5, 2012
4,567
1,107
London and Essex
Thanks for the answers. I would like to know if an offence has been committed under legislation covering these matters, of course I realise i will only get a general outline.

As most IT support staff are given admin access to all computer systems as needed to do their job then it's unlikely any offence has been committed.

If however the employee accessed the person in questions mailbox and deleted some emails they may be guilty of a sackable offence if the company wished to deal with it in that manner.
 
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Newchodge

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    Nov 8, 2012
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    Would it not be simplest for Ruth to email Dave and top management, querying where the email has gone? It also may be better tactically for the OP to stay away from this until or unless top management starts an investigation, so that he can witness that Ruth sent the email, without appearing to have taken sides already?
     
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