The Fair Work Commission has ruled that emailing pornography through a work address is not an automatic sacking offence.

The ruling was made in the case of three Australia Post workers from Victoria, who were sacked after their boss found them using the email system at the Dandenong office to distribute adult material. The three men appealed in court, with the full bench of the Fair Work Commission unanimously deciding that the terminations were too harsh and the workers could be given their jobs back.

In a statement released with the ruling, two of the three commissioners said: “There is an emerging trend... regarding the accessing, sending or receiving and storing pornography by an employee as a form of serious misconduct that invariably merits termination of employment.”

The Commission has strongly emphasised that the ruling should not be seen as an invitation to freely distribute pornography through emails, saying the main thrust of the decision was to reiterate that the same unfair dismissal laws apply to cases involving workplace pornography as any other firing from misbehaviour.

The statement said emailing pornography “is not a separate species of misconduct to which special rules apply.”

The case is ongoing and will return before the Commission later this month.