Employee sacked over sending e-mail

An employee of children’s charity the NSPCC
who was suspended for sending a “confidential” e-mail to
Community Care has been sacked for gross misconduct.
Social worker John Power, who is also a union representative for
the British Union of Social Work Employees, was suspended in
November 2001 on charges of breaching the trust and confidence of
the NSPCC by forwarding the contents of an intranet chat site
regarding redundancies.

At Power’s hearing last week, the NSPCC argued
that the site was confidential and did not allow public disclosure.
Power said that he had been acting in the best interests of others
as a union representative and in the light of the charity’s denial
of disillusionment within the society. He said his intent was not
to harm the NSPCC but to share concerns over realignment.