I am not sure what you are asking. I wonder if you are asking if a work-at-home employee's work on the Internet can be legally monitored by his/her employer? If it can, can the employee be legally terminated if he/she is shopping, receiving junk email, etc. If these are your questions, the courts are holding that an employee (whether at work or a telecommuter) has a limited right to privacy expectation in their email. So whether the employer can also snoop into the files on the employees system, I am not sure that is legal. Next question about termination, it depends on a couple of things. Assuming that the employee is doing non-employer tasks (shopping on the net, buying/selling stock, engaging in a chat room, etc.) on employer time, the employer can certainly take corrective actions up to and including termination. The limiting factors are whether the state is an at-will state or not. At-will means that the employer can terminate the employee at any time, with or without a reason. Next, another limiting factor is whether the employee is protected by a union or has a written contract of employment. So, for more information please consult this web site's BBS on employment(labor) law.
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Mark B. Replogle
