Thanks to the tenacious Lancaster UAF blog for this story about the BNP-linked union Solidarity’s latest campaign.
A County Durham teacher and former BNP candidate, Mark Walker, has been suspended for something related to computer misuse. Solidarity claim it was the innocent popular past-time of visiting the BNP’s website. The head claims it was something else. Lancaster UAF’s rumour mill suggests looking at far-right sites whilst he should have been teaching.
A nice illustration of the personal surfing in the workplace story from last week. It’s not unreasonable to be allowed to use the web in your own time at work, and a good employer will have a policy to support this, albeit with a couple of important caveats:
- So long as it’s your *own* time. That means breaktime, downtime, however your employer defines it. Their definition is unlikely to include “on the clock” or whilst you’re really supposed to be teaching for example.
- So long as what you do on the web isn’t something which could damage your employer or cause offence, like, ooh erm I don’t know… accessing racist and offensive material online maybe?
Unfortunately for Walker, as a member of Solidarity, rather than one of the proper (and recognised) teaching unions, his support is coming from the presumably rather overworked Pat Harrington and in lieu of sympathetic colleagues from the union branch, a motley crew from the BNP, their front groups, and adverts on nazi chatrooms, who popped down to hassle the school on the first day of term.
Fortunately for the rest of us, Walker’s alleged activities put him in a rather different boat from the rest of the nation’s lunchbreak surfers, so if he goes (deservedly) down, he shouldn’t spoil the office daily poke for everyone.
