A recent article titled “Workplace gamble at odds with Safety (Herald Sun 27/05/2014)” caught our eye. The article raises the level of social responsibility that comes with organisations supplying computers, laptops, tablets and mobile phones to staff.
More specifically the article mentions the issue of company risk caused by employees gambling on company provided devices.
Now while it may be easy to overlook “social responsibilities” in these busy times, significant fines in excess of one million dollars may be incurred should Occupational Health and Safety in relation to gambling addictions be ignored.
An employer may be responsible for ensuring that an employee does not develop or exacerbate an existing gambling condition. Employers who fail to take reasonable steps to prevent employees from gambling on company computer devices could be seen to have neglected this responsibility under the Occupation Health and Safety Act.
So how does your organisation help prevent your employees from gambling? The first step is to eliminate the accessibility of gambling sites from devices supplied to staff. Using today’s technology this is actually pretty straightforward. Firewalls such as a Dell SonicWall can be programmed to block access to gambling sites as well a range of other sites deemed to promote antisocial behaviours. Firewalls can easily be installed by an IT consultancy company at a fraction of the cost of a legal case or fine. In addition, mobile devices need Internet security software installed to limit access to inappropriate sites when they are not logged in to the company network.
There are many options in relation to both hardware and software security and alltasksIT are happy to discuss with you further. These should be considered as one step in promoting an anti-gambling workplace environment – organisational culture and workplace policies also being important considerations.
http://www.responsiblegambling.vic.gov.au/awareness-and-prevention/gambling-and-the-workplace
