The alarm was raised after the e-mails, the content of which has not been disclosed, were forwarded to Ford, Jaguar’s parent company in the US. Yesterday, the company announced that the 30 people involved had been using the company’s internal e-mail system to forward “inappropriate material” and were a combination of employees and contract staff.
Last year, Merrill Lynch dismissed 15 people after they were found to be circulating pornography via the company e-mail system. Under similar circumstances, Royal & Sun Alliance dismissed 10 employees and suspended 77. Other companies that have taken a hard line on employee e-mail abuse include Orange and Credit Lyonnais.