NEW YORK - Salomon Smith Barney has fired two high-ranking stock analysts for using company computers to share pornography.
A memo about the firings was given to employees at the brokerage on Tuesday saying that two executives had been fired on Friday for breaking the firm's rules "prohibiting the electronic transmission of offensive images or text such as pornography."
A spokeswoman for Salomon Smith Barney would not comment further about the firings, but other employees said they understood the pornography was sent through internal email. They said that they believed the communications were detected by the company as part of its monitoring of internal messages.
The company's employee handbook warns workers that internal email may be examined by the firm and that misuse of equipment could result in firings. It clearly prohibits communicating pornography, off-color jokes, or "anything that may be construed as illegally harassing or offensive to others."
"There is no personal privacy when you use Salomon Smith Barney's equipment and services," it states.
The firings came less than two weeks before a federal judge will consider the fairness of a unique settlement to resolve sexual discrimination and harassment claims against Smith Barney Inc., which later merged with Salomon Brothers.
The case against Smith Barney had scandalized the firm when it was filed in 1996. It included allegations that women at a branch office had been groped and humiliated by senior male colleagues in what was known as a "boom-boom" room.
On 9 April, US District Judge Constance Motley will hold a hearing in Manhattan federal court at which potential plaintiffs can comment on why they object to or support the settlement.
The accord is unusual in that it will allow women to resolve claims using an independent arbitrator instead of a mandated securities industry mediator.
