Employee Policy

Email Privacy for employees- Each employee must maintain the confidentiality of confidential information entrusted to him or her by the Company or its customers, except when disclosure is authorized by the General Counsel or Vice President, Legal, or required by law or regulations. Confidential information includes all nonpublic information that, if disclosed, might be useful to competitors or harmful to the Company or its customers. It also includes information that suppliers and customers have entrusted to us. Employees are required to execute a standard form confidentiality agreement upon employment and from time to time during the course of employment. The obligation to preserve confidential information continues even after employment ends.

(I) Work email - Emails sent or received through a company email account are generally not considered private. Employers are free to monitor these communications, as long as there's a valid business purpose for doing so. In most cases an email policy is usually already in place and is discussed during the time of hiring.  However. though employers can elect to keep email confidential for employees, but if they suspect malicious activity, they can always foresee the right to conduct an investigation. However, an employer can never monitor employees' email for personal, illegal or any other reason than it being related to the business.

(II) Personal email on Company Equipment - An employer's ability to monitor emails sent or received on an employee's personal, web-based account (for example, a personal Gmail account) is more complicated. In general, this type of monitoring is more likely to be allowed if the employee is using company equipment and has consented in writing to the employer's monitoring of all computer use. Generally, this would happen if the employee agreed on a written or oral agreement (usually written) that activity can be monitored by the company, however with the exception to business only policies.

Employer Monitoring of Worksites

Employees Behavior off Job

• As an employee of the University of Belize, the employee at NO TIME should initiate an issue that can affect the institution.

• Each employee is bound with good ethical/standard principles, conducting themselves in a professional manner, even when off duty.

• High value information should not be disseminated when an employee is outside the workplace.

• A teacher/lecturer employed by the University should always maintain professionalism extending beyond the boundaries of the campus.

Rules for Social Media

• Employees should refrain from discriminatory or harassing posts. This guidance should apply to new posts, retweets, shares and hashtags. Statements and slurs about race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity and gender can be considered offensive.

• Always consider the institution policy regarding social media.

• Prohibit posting company confidential information. These guidelines should prohibit employees from sharing any company confidential information. This prohibition covers information such as: client lists, non-public financials, business strategies, legal matters.

• Opinions of the employee should not reflect the company at no time.

Why should we enforce these rules?