The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Porn cartoon sackings fight to keep jobs

Royal & SunAlliance overreacted to Simpsons smut, say they

Free whitepaper – Dell solid state disk (SSD) drives

The ten employees fired at insurance company Royal & SunAlliance for forwarding "lewd" Simpsons cartoons are willing to take their case to court if an internal appeal doesn't reinstate them.

The company stunned many when they decided that emailing the cartoons was a sackable offence. Firms have been making examples of various staff in the last few months by suspending those who had "abused" company IT systems (Royal & SunAlliance has also suspended another 77), but firing people for what is just a dirty cartoon is over the top.

That's certainly what the sacked staff and their trade union - the Manufacturing, Science and Finance Union (MSF) - believe. MSF representatives are currently involved in an internal appeal that is expected to end in the middle of next week, but if the company refuses to reinstate them at the end of it, a court battle is expected.

More next week. ®

Related Stories

Royal & Sun Alliance sacks ten over obscene emails
More email victims at Royal & SunAlliance

Free whitepaper – Migrating to the new Dell Management Console

Don’t Miss

DustbinDirty, dirty PCs: The X-rated picture guide

Ventblockers Horror beyond human imagination

SC09Top 500 supers - rise of the Linux quad-cores

SC09 Jaguar munches Roadrunner

Ubuntu teaser Early adopters bloodied by Ubuntu's Karmic Koala

Smooth Windows upgrade it ain't

Sign up, sign up for The Register IT security newsletter

Narrowcasting for the email classes