Immediate dismissal for abuse of electronic infrastructure

Facts

[A.] was dismissed with immediate effect from the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) on 18 September 2014 due to numerous accesses to websites with pornographic and sexist content from his workplace. [A.] challenged the dismissal before the Federal Administrative Court, which dismissed his appeal. [A.] then filed a public law appeal with the Federal Supreme Court, requesting the annulment of the decision and his reinstatement.

Considerations

The Federal Supreme Court dismissed A.'s appeal. The Court held that the nominal analysis of the navigation data carried out by the SBB without A.'s consent or the authorization of the management, as required by law, was unlawful. However, after weighing the interests at stake, the Federal Supreme Court concluded that the SBB could nevertheless use the results of such computer analysis to justify A.'s immediate…