SECURITY/CONFIDENTIALITY

CONFIDENTIALITY

You must not disclose any trade secrets or other information of a confidential nature relating to the Company or any of its associated companies or their business or in respect of which the Company owes an obligation of confidence to any third party during or after your employment except in the proper course of your employment or as required by law.

You must not remove any documents or tangible items which belong to the Company or which contain any confidential information from the Company’s premises at any time without proper advance authorisation.

You must return to the Company upon request, and in any event, upon the termination of your employment, all documents and tangible items which belong to the Company or which contain or refer to any confidential information and which are in your possession or under your control.

You must if requested by the Company, delete all confidential information from any re-usable material and destroy all other documents and tangible items which contain or refer to any confidential information and which are in your possession or under your control.

INVENTIONS/DISCOVERIES/COPYRIGHT/INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Under the terms of the Patents Act 1977, an invention or discovery made by you will become the property of the Company if it was made:

  • in the course of your normal duties or in the course of duties specifically assigned to you

or

  • in the course of your duties, and at the time of making the invention, because of the nature of the duties and the particular responsibilities arising from those duties, you have a particular obligation to further our interests.

Any work or transference of intellectual property so carried out by the employee on behalf of the Company during the course of their contract of employment shall accrue to the Company and the Company may incorporate the same within its (i) proprietary computer programs relating to life administration, accounting, business operations, marketing, and forecasting; (ii) operations manuals and (iii) other designated proprietary or confidential information.

The employee shall not acquire any right under their contract of employment to use, and shall not use, the name “FIT” (either alone or in conjunction with or as part of any other work or name) or any fanciful characters or designs of the Company or in any other manner whatsoever (1) in any advertising, publicity or promotion; nor (2) to express or imply any endorsement by the Company of any products or services of the employee; nor (3) to use any of said names, characters or designs in any manner without the prior written consent of the Company, this condition shall survive the termination of the contract of employment for whatever reason.

COMPETITION AGREEMENT

It is a condition of your employment that, when your employment is terminated, for whatever reason, you may not, for a period of 12 months after the termination of your employment, approach any individual or organisation who has, during the period of your employment, been a customer, if the purpose of such an approach is to solicit business which could otherwise, have been undertaken by us.

COMMUNICATIONS OR STATEMENTS TO THE MEDIA

Only Management is authorised to make any communication or statement to the media in matters relating to the business.

OTHER EMPLOYMENT

You must notify us of all other employment which you undertake. We will not allow any other employment which we deem to be either in direct competition or presents a conflict of interest with ourselves or our operation, but we will not object to any other employment provided it does not interfere with your ability to satisfactorily fulfil the job we employ you to do.

This information is also required in order that there is no infringement of the Working Time Regulations.

STOCK/PROPERTY

Our property must only be used for the purpose for which intended and must not be removed from the premises, without prior approval.

All employees have a duty to report to management, any damage to or loss of stock, fixtures and fitting or property (including vehicles).

If, following investigation, it is found that as a result of; your carelessness, negligence, or failure to comply with Company procedures, or by willful act, the Company suffers loss, or damage, of cash, stock, fixtures and fittings, or property, (including vehicles), this will be construed as a serious breach of the rules, which could result in your summary dismissal on the grounds of gross misconduct.
In addition to being the subject of the appropriate disciplinary action, you may be liable to pay the full, or part, cost of making good the Company’s loss in respect of cash, stock, fixtures and fittings, or Company property (including vehicles). In the event that the Company makes a claim against its insurers, for repair, or replacement, or other losses incurred, we reserve the right to require you to pay any insurance excess that may accrue.

N.B. This would include losses incurred by the Company in respect of any hire equipment or costs which the Company have had to reimburse to a third party.

COMPUTER/NETWORK SECURITY

COMPUTER RULES

In order to maintain the integrity of our computer system and records, the following rules must be observed:-

  • Passwords for access to the system are confidential and must not be revealed to other employees.
  • Playing games on the system, or individual computers is forbidden
  • All software or disks, must be authorised by Management, before they are loaded onto or even placed in any computer.
  • Upon the discovery of computer virus and/or corrupted information, Management must be advised immediately.
  • Access to Internet must be authorised by Management and use of the Internet is restricted to work use. Private use is forbidden.
  • The sending of E-mails is restricted to business use only.
  • The creation, generation, and distribution of material that is offensive on race, sex or disability grounds is forbidden.
  • It is forbidden to use the computer system to generate and/or distribute material which is offensive to or ridicules other employees.
  • The storage of any kind of offensive material (including pornography) on the computer system is expressly forbidden.
  • In these rules material will be considered offensive if it causes distress to the person who receives or discovers it.
  • Accidental sending of such material should be impossible if the above rules are observed and applied.
  • The Company considers any breach of these rules to be Gross Misconduct for which the normal punishment will be summary dismissal.

E-MAIL CODE OF CONDUCT

The arrival and installation of network and connectivity technologies enable us to use e-mail. However, e-mail could lead to poorer communication if it is abused and misapplied.

This document sets out our e-mail code of conduct so that any employee who,
  • uses e-mail technology on behalf of the Company
  • uses the technology on hardware, software provided by the Company
  • uses the technology to communicate information about the Company its customers and/or suppliers
  • uses the technology to communicate any information that has been gained from the Company

Does so in accordance with this code of conduct.

Failure to do so will lead to disciplinary action which could result in summary dismissal for gross misconduct.

Our objective for installing e-mail is to provide an improved channel of communications with our customers and therefore improving customer satisfaction.

E-mail is a business tool we can use for improving customer satisfaction and must be treated as such.

Caution must be taken when using e-mail as it is easy to send. BUT once the send command has been given, the message cannot be stopped.

E-mail is not a substitute for face to face, or even telephone communication. The human being uses many techniques during face to face communication (e.g. body language, facial expression, tone, pitch, etc) that cannot be employed within an electronic message. Care must be taken in the construction of an e-mail message so that its contents cannot be misinterpreted.

Bullying, harassment or abuse of others through the use of e-mail is forbidden. This includes sending information that insults or harasses others with respect to the sex, race, age, disability or religion.

It is forbidden to:

  • Access or distribute pornography
  • Engage in on-line gambling
  • Take part in electronic chain letters
  • Download or distribute copyright information
  • Download, open or distribute unauthorised software
  • Post confidential information about the Company, its customers or suppliers without authorisation
  • Use the Company System for personal purposes, without the prior authority of Management.

Although e-mail provides the capability of sending the same message to many recipients simultaneously, only include the people who need the message. Otherwise “junk e-mail” is being generated for no reason.
Deliberate sending of junk e-mail is forbidden.

When replying to an e-mail, make sure that the reply is for the sender only and not original mailing list (unless there is a requirement to do so).

When attaching files to a message, keep them small. E-mail is not the medium to use for very high resolution graphics. In addition, do not attach files that have hidden confidential information (e.g. base cost calculations you may have used to generate a quote). Software exists that can reveal this hidden data.

Remember:

  • E-mail can be read by third parties (police can obtain printouts directly from internet service providers without a warrant)
  • E-mail can be used in evidence.
  • E-mail can create binding contracts.

Make sure that the content of your e-mail is factually correct and non-defamatory.

It is forbidden to send e-mail using a mail client (i.e. software) that has been installed for another employee (i.e. someone else will appear to be the sender) unless authorised to do so by the Company. In addition employees must take adequate precautions to prevent this (e.g. ensure that PCs are not left switched on and unattended for long periods of time).

An individual’s PC may be audited at any time to ensure compliance to this code of conduct.

Should an employee be subject to harassment or abuse from e-mail at work from another employee, then the matter should be reported to Management immediately.
 

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