Spending short periods of time shopping or browsing online during work hours is not a sackable offence, a UK judge has ruled in a case that awarded an employee more than £14,000 in compensation.
The ruling followed the dismissal of Ms A Lanuszka, an accountancy administrator, who was fired in July 2023 after her employer secretly installed spyware on her computer and recorded her visiting websites such as Rightmove and Amazon.
The tribunal heard she spent around one hour and 24 minutes over two days on personal browsing. But Employment Judge Michael Magee, sitting in Bury St Edmunds, concluded the activity was not “excessive” and did not justify dismissal.
Judge Magee noted that Lanuszka’s boss, Ms Krauze, also used her work computer for personal purposes and had provided no clear policy banning such use. “She was free to use the computer personally when work commitments permitted and during breaks,” the judge said.
A large proportion of the recorded time was spent on professional development, including Excel training. Lanuszka had no prior disciplinary issues and had received no warnings.
The judge also criticised diary entries presented by Krauze to suggest long-standing performance issues, pointing out they were written in 2024, after the dismissal, and backdated to 2022 and 2023.
The tribunal concluded that Lanuszka’s dismissal coincided with the permanent move to the UK of Krauze’s sister and was designed to remove her from the company before she accrued two years’ service — the threshold at which workers gain full protection under unfair dismissal law.
Lanuszka had originally joined Accountancy MK in 2017 but signed a new contract in 2021 when Krauze rebranded the business.
The tribunal’s decision highlights the importance for employers of having clear IT and personal-use policies — and of applying them consistently.