They didn't do it on company time or property, but it cost them their jobs regardless.
Husband-and-wife nurses at a hospital here were fired for posting and running their own pornographic website on their own time and computer - and they've hit back at their critics.
George and Tracy Miller say they started the site to raise money for their children's college education. The website shows explicit photographs of Tracy, who uses the online name Dakota Rae, and offers an opportunity to subscribe to the site for more graphic images.
Tracy says the issue of posing nude on or offline is small, "but the principle of your rights as a United States citizen is huge." However, Arizona law allows employers to fire "at will" employees (those not under contract) for exercising free speech rights by way of online nudity. "You have the right to fire an employee for cause, or without reason, so long as you do not, as an employer, violate any federal or state statutes," says attorney Phil McGuigan, who specializes in Internet issues and adds such "at will" workers have very little protection, if any.
"For example, you cannot fire someone if it involves some sort of discrimination," he says. "But an employee at will can be fired if you don't like their cologne."
Which has others, including the Arizona chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, thinking the "at will" rule has gone too far. The Arizona ACLU says it is investigating the Miller case. "We're concerned generally with the trend we see of employers intruding into the private lives of their employees," says Arizona ACLUE Executive Director Eleanor Eisenberg. "[They are] making decisions based on information obtained about what people do when they're not at work - particularly when what they do when they're not at work does not affect their job performance."
Tracy says it's one thing to think on the nudity issue alone where one's own values and morals may prevent one from finding nudity acceptable. "However, I don't think many of you want to give up your rights as people and let others judge your morality," she says. "Most people I find who point fingers are the same people who have their own insecurities about themselves…If (posing nude) offends you, don't look! I won't look at you while you're cheating on your spouse or drinking too much booze."
The Arizona ACLU is also considering whether the hospital's federal funding from Medicare and Medicaid could make it subject to the same rules government must follow, but ZDNet News says that is "a tough argument."
Tracy says she posted her comments to ZDNet News because most people posting message to the online site's message boards "are very small-minded" about the issue.
"I pose this question to you," she says. "What is going on in your house right now that your neighbor might find offensive or immoral? Are you prepared to let your neighbor decide for you that your masturbating, getting divorced, marrying a younger person, interracial marriages, or, like me, posing nude, is wrong by their definition or religion and (they should) punish you?"
