Legal question: Dispute with client

[original PM]

Apologies, quite correct. Still unprofessional of him to ignore them.

completely agree - it could actually land the brolly in quite a bit of hot water.

[northernladuk]

To be punished for something which has had implicit (or even explicit) approval from management isn't professional.

True again but this one should go through the proper channels to find out the root cause and who is responsible and also be communicated through the chain of engagement as originalPM said. To come after him personally is wrong and not sure why the client in question can't see that.

[northernladuk]

completely agree - it could actually land the brolly in quite a bit of hot water.

I am thinking more towards the agent. Their contract is with the client and there must be some level of responsibility on the agent to make sure he is prepared for engagement with the client. Depends on what the agreement between the two is and in my mind is worth digging in to.

Speak to the hiring team at the client and see what the process for new starters is and at what point are the policies given to new starters. If there isn't a process then it's the clients fault and this should go no where. If the agent has to get them signed and returned it's the agents problem etc etc.

[Scruff]

Just tell them that when you terminated your assignment with them, you deleted the contents of the Dropbox? Clearly, the moment that your PC was logged off, only the locally cached copy was there, and the account will not have sync'd with the cloud copy.

Just ensure that you have deleted the contents from your Dropbox and haven't kept a copy?

[ap2013]

I didn't ignore them, I did not know they existed. If I had known there were policies restricting the use of Dropbox I would have stopped using it immediately. I even informed my manager at the time I was using Dropbox (he has now subsequently left the company).

[malvolio]

We're only seeing one side of this of course, but assuming all you are saying is accurate the likely result is that you will be found "guilty" but since the client did not advice or enforce its security policy any losses incurred are down to them.

However, don't rely on us amateurs, talk to the brolly and get legal advice.

On the wider point, the client doesn't give a tupenny damn about the chain of command. They hired the OP, the OP screwed up (in their eyes), the OP is therefore liable. And while the umbrella is the OP's employee they will have something very clear in their Ts&Cs about not being liable for misconduct by individuals.

[original PM]

I didn't ignore them, I did not know they existed. If I had known there were policies restricting the use of Dropbox I would have stopped using it immediately. I even informed my manager at the time I was using Dropbox (he has now subsequently left the company).

in that case your ass is probably covered but someone is being shouted at at the client co and needs to make it look like they are doing something....

put it down to lessons learned and move on.

[original PM]

[QUOTE=malvolio;1845385]We're only seeing one side of this of course, but assuming all you are saying is accurate the likely result is that you will be found "guilty" but since the client did not advice or enforce its security policy any losses incurred are down to them.

However, don't rely on us amateurs, talk to the brolly and get legal advice.

On the wider point, the client doesn't give a tupenny damn about the chain of command. They hired the OP, the OP screwed up (in their eyes), the OP is therefore liable. And while the umbrella is the OP's employee they will have something very clear in their Ts&Cs about not being liable for misconduct by individuals.[/QUOTE]

Not sure that would stand up in court - an employee is a representative of the company - you cannot 'disown' them all you can do is sack them for gross misconduct.

[Boney M]

The client's policy may state the individual is liable for breaches of their security policy.

However as you have no copy of the policy or signed something personally to agree to this, get a solicitor to write the client and the umbrella a nasty letter.

I am in SueEllen's camp on this one.

On another note, why would you resign if there were no issues with your attendance and performance? On another note, having work files accessible from home shows a lack of performance or otherwise not managing your time well or their expectations on the deliverables

[jmo21]

To cut a long story short I had my personal dropbox linked to my work PC with documents and diagrams that I was working on for Client X. Because of a blocked USB port policy this was the only way for me to work at times since documents I had been working on at home I needed to work on in the office. I made my manager aware at the time that this was not ideal and that it was the only way I could still work when I was at home.

Is this the crux of it? Did you ask the manager? If you did, and he said yes, does this not put the OP in the clear? Hopefully it was via email and you have a copy.