A former IBM employee fired for accessing an adult chat room from work is suing the company for $5 million. In his lawsuit, James Pacenza claims that he is an Internet addict and sex addict, and that IBM should have allowed him to seek treatment after he was caught in the chat room rather than firing him.
Pacenza is a decorated Vietnam veteran and says that he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of his service there. The PTSD then led him to become a sex addict, he claims. Once he discovered the Internet, Pacenza then added an Internet addiction to his other psychological problems.
IBM—like most companies—has strict corporate policies against accessing adult web sites from work. Despite that, Pacenza logged on an adult chat room on ChatAvenue while at work in 2003. When he stepped away from his PC, another worker saw that he was logged into the chat and reported it to his supervisor. Pacenza was fired the following day.
Pacenza’s complaint contains a whole slew of accusations against IBM. Given his age at the time of the dismissal (55 and just one year away from retirement), Pacenza believes that IBM’s decision to terminate him constitutes age discrimination. He also accuses IBM of improperly accessing his medical records—which included details of his psychiatric treatment—before firing him and also violating the Americans With Disabilities Act. Perhaps most interestingly, Pacenza says that IBM should have allowed him to seek treatment for his "Internet addiction" instead of firing him.
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