WASHINGTON – A Baltimore city employee has been fired after it was discovered that he had watched 39 hours of pornography on the job over a two-week period.
The worker was a maintenance supervisor with the Department of Public Works, and brought a DVD of pornography to work, the Baltimore Sun reports. One day that he was being monitored, he watched it for nearly seven hours of his workday, the inspector general tells the Sun.
The worker has not been identified. He worked at the facilities division of the Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant, on Eastern Avenue, was suspended without pay last September and fired Jan. 20.
The inspector general’s report also indicates that the DVD was being watched in full-screen mode; officials thusly believe that the employee was doing little, if any, work while the DVD was playing. Inspector General Rob Pearre Jr. says that the unauthorized use of the computer is the real issue: “It would have been the same if he were watching sports on his computer for four out of eight hours a day,” Pearre said.
The investigation began after an anonymous complaint. The Sun says the worker’s pay for the two-week period was nearly $1,200. Pearre tells The Sun that the city hasn’t determined whether it’ll go to court to get that money back.
