Watching porn at work: in Spain this is not a reason for dismissal

One of the bad (or rather questionable) practices that the advent of the Internet has left in offices is the increase in the number of workers who watch porn in your work.

In 2017, Brigham Young University published a very revealing study on this topic, which indicated the following parameters:

• 60% of people only watched porn at work. 10% saw this at work and also at home.
• 70% of all porn traffic on the Internet occurs during working hours, that is, from 9:00 to 17:00.
• Various federal agencies have investigated employees of several companies and found that indeed Many people spend too much time each day visiting “adult pages.”

And in Spain, an employee was fired after he was caught watching porn at work and masturbating in 2020.

However, a recent judgment delivered by elDiario.es through the EFE agency ruled that the Granollers Court in Barcelona declared the dismissal inadmissible.

The judges of the TSJC (high courts of justice) were only able to ensure that The worker’s “only negligent behavior” was watching pornographic videos while on the job. in various cases. And although the cameras show how he could masturbate, this was not taken into account when making this decision.

But the big surprise comes when watching erotic videos is not grounds for dismissal. The resolution emphasizes this as follows: “The mere viewing of sexual content during the workday may not, in some cases, be considered a serious breach of good faith contract, and the resident is responsible for terminating the offender’s employment.”

Finally, the TSJC noted that the dismissal was unfair because the company In his resignation letter, he did not specify how many times he was “caught” masturbating. in addition to the word “in some cases.” And this is in addition to the fact that the employee did not “show” his practice to other colleagues.