U.K. workers sacked over lewd e-mails

LONDON, England -- A British firm has sacked or suspended dozens of workers over the sending of lewd e-mails featuring cartoon characters.

Media reports said on Friday that the Royal and Sun Alliance had sacked 10 people and suspended 77 others after a client complained of receiving offensive e-mail images.

The insurance company confirmed the action but did not disclose the number of employees affected. A spokesman said the e-mails contained a collection of sexual images of Bart Simpson and Kermit the Frog.

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"Reports that this was just Bart Simpson imagery were wide of the mark," the spokesman said. "When we peeled back the layers some of the material that was bandied about was of a far more gratuitous and offensive nature."

A company statement added: "It is pornographic and obscene and goes well beyond anything that any reasonable person would describe as permissible."

A British trade union said on Friday that the Royal and Sun Alliance had over-reacted.

"We do not condone lewd or rude e-mails," a spokesman for the MSF union -- which is representing the dismissed workers -- said. "But from the information we have we feel the company has overreacted in the speed and the severity of the punishment."

Guidelines on e-mail and Internet use within the firm had been in place since June, the company spokesman said, and employees were fully aware of the risk.

"We said at the time we would vigorously enforce this policy and unfortunately now we have had to do that," the spokesman said. The firm is carrying out an internal investigation.

The company said its policy was developed in consultation with union representatives.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Royal & SunAlliance
MSF Union

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