In his decision, Judge John Spooner said that agencies should apply the same standard to personal Internet use as they do to other personal activities. He noted that many agencies allow employees to take personal calls, or even read the newspaper, as long as those activities do not interfere with a worker's overall performance.
Toquir Choudhri, a Department of Education employee of 14 years, was accused of ignoring supervisors who warned him to stop browsing the Internet while at work. An investigation found evidence that Choudhri had browsed news and travel Web sites from his work computer.
"Look, at 4 in the morning, or because of the nature of the department, some city agencies have downtime. Surfing on the Internet--everybody does it," Martin Druyan, the union attorney representing Choudhri, told CNET News. "Choudhri was singled out in retaliation for discrimination charges that he filed against the Department of Education," he said.
"The judge ruled in our favor because they could not prove that work was backed up, or that phone calls went unanswered," Druyan added. "We don't advocate goofing off. The public should be served. But if there's not work, it's not his fault."
Choudhri was not fired, but Spooner reprimanded him in a letter that will go into Choudhri's employee file.
Druyan said he was pleased with the decision.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg fired a city employee in February during his tour of the city's Albany legislative offices, after noticing a game of computer solitaire on the employee's screen.
The Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings judges rule on New York City municipal policies. Because Spooner's decision directly affects New York City agencies, the decision could have an influence on Bloomberg's earlier action.
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New York City, Judge, worker, agency, decision
workers who can't be fired? There are producers and there are
parasites, and the latter group grows bigger every day.
All the judge is saying that workers can't be fired for doing things that do not get in the way of their work. Did you read the part that the reason he was "fired" for surfing the internet was in retaliation for the worker filing discrimination charges against his employers.
this result is one more reason that the West is getting its collective @ss handed to it economically.
things, be checking out stuff like Ars Technica or Slashdot or
even (I'll admit it) the Jerry Springer stuff like news.zdnet.com
while doing other things, and I consider this time well spent, in
fact my employers should be down on bended knee thanking me
for taking an active interest in my work, and truth be told they
usually are (metaphorically speaking, of course). And yes I do
work alongside a few people who would likely gossip about how
that constitutes "playing on the Internet" and "wasting time at
work." But they're typically people with lifetime employment (e.g.
union) who don't have to keep up with technology (e.g. union),
who maybe have literacy issues (nothing against people with
literacy issues), who don't have to learn one more thing until the
day they retire in order to keep their jobs and keep their annual
incremental salary increases. Of course I don't encourage people
to spend half the work day fracking around on eBay, playing
online games, etc., but one gets lumped in with the other.
- go judge!
- by alek_nedic May 1, 2006 10:43 AM PDT
- http://www.analogstereo.com/cadillac_fleetwood_owners_manual.htm
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