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No more games for officials
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Mladá fronta Dnes, 01.03.2008 Page: 1
Column: Střední Čechy
Author: IVANA FARYOVÁ
Central Bohemia – Every Monday afternoon Linet company employees in the Kladno district can come and freely email or surf on the Internet at the company’s Internet cafe. Of course this is outside working hours. The company has opened the café so its employees can settle their private matters and not do this on company computers when at work.
“Working regulations bind employees to use computers and the Internet only for work,” said Linet human resources director Jiří Kolář. After inspecting to see what people are doing during working hours, the company now has reliable means of preventing this. “We monitor access to the Internet and assess this. Back inspections can also be made. Overstepping these regulations is considered a breach of work discipline,” said Kolář.
Inspections are also carried out on employees else where. Sometimes things do not turn out well. Forty-four people from Prague’s Dopravní podniky (Prague Public Transport Company) were recently dismissed from work because they played games, chatted on the Internet, surfed on websites and downloaded files from the Internet.
Seven officials from the Central Bohemian Regional Authority lost their jobs last year for playing computer games. The inspection showed that some spent most of their working hours playing computer games. The record among them was held by one employee who spent 70 hours playing cards which was about 60 percent of working hours.
“So the inspection fulfilled its purpose and it is not being excluded that we will repeat it at some time,” said regional spokesman Martin Kupka. “We consider it important to see how every employee spends his working hours,” he stated.
After the secret inspection the regional authority has tightened access to the Internet. “Websites are blocked and we have also blocked the possibility of playing games. I think that the authority has done everything it can,” remarked Kupka. He thinks it is right to take a reasonable check to find out what the employee does on his computer during working hours. But the situation is different concerning emails. “We did not check emails because this is confidential information. I do not think that employees misuse it and there is not that much time to waste,” said Kupka.
“If an employer wants to look into an email box, then this is a sensitive problem. The employee has a great chance to defend himself against such a check,” claims lawyer Jan Černý. “Computer checks and website search is a normal checking procedure of how an employee works. This can be compared when the boss asks his subordinate what he has been doing all day,” added the lawyer.
For example, not all employees of the Mladá Boleslav and Kladno municipal authority have access to the Internet. Apart from certain exceptions, they also have the Internet blocked off just as at the regional authority. “Employees cannot play games during working hours or surf on the Internet, unless this directly relates to their work,” said Kladno municipal authority spokeswoman Petra Kučerová. “The system is secured, and it prevents access to certain websites such as erotic and new games cannot be installed in it. Browsing on the Internet is monitored,” she explained. “In the last two years we had one case here and we handled it as a reprimand,” she added.
According to deputy mayor of Mladá Boleslav Jan Smutný employees of the municipal authority only have access to those websites they need for their work. “The rest are blocked,” said Smutný.
Employees are also checked at the Škoda car factory in Mladá Boleslav, but the method they use is a secret. “It is an internal matter,” stated Škoda Auto car plant spokesman Jaroslav Černý.
(1.3.2008)