Worker fired for forwarding corporate emails with attached client information to his private email address

The dismissal of the employee who, disobeying the company's internal regulations on the use of information technology, forwards (in a hidden copy) internal professional e-mails with attached information about clients, is justified. This is an act of indiscipline that constitutes a clear abuse of trust and disloyalty, classified as a very serious offence in the applicable collective bargaining agreement.

Forwarding of e-mails

An employee of an insurance company forwarded on several occasions, in blind copy, to different private addresses, internal mails with attached documents containing relevant information such as policy codes, names, surnames and ID numbers of policyholders, telephone numbers, postal and e-mail addresses. The worker and his representatives were aware that the
company had internal IT regulations which expressly prohibited the forwarding of corporate messages or documents to private accounts of the employee or his family or friends, as the latter do not enjoy the same level of security, and it was not possible to configure corporate mail to forward messages received to a private email account.

Very serious misconduct

The applicable collective agreement for the sector classifies as very serious misconduct, among others, fraud, disloyalty and abuse of trust in the tasks entrusted, as well as the fraudulent use of electronic means or technological tools established in the company.

The worker sued for dismissal, stating that his fundamental rights had been violated and requesting additional compensation for this reason. The lower court partially upheld the dismissal claim and declared the disciplinary dismissal unjustified, without admitting the violation of fundamental rights or, therefore, the compensation for damages requested by the worker.

Appeal in cassation

The company lodged an appeal for leave to appeal, which was upheld, declaring the dismissal to be justified on the grounds of breach of the applicable collective agreement and consideration of the aforementioned internal regulations. The court, after considering the required review of the proven facts, held that, in accordance with the applicable collective agreement, there was no doubt that the employee had committed
a clear abuse of trust and disloyalty for the alleged facts, which in turn represents an act of indiscipline against the company's orders by forwarding documents whose custody is his responsibility, in violation of the prohibition of fraudulent use of the company's computer resources.

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