UK firms are losing more than £130 million a day from their employees who are supposed to be working and not wasting time visiting social networking sites such as Facebook, or MySpace, an employment law firm said.

The firm, Peninsula, estimated a lost of 233 million hours per month by employees ‘wasting time’ on the internet.

The calculations were based on a survey conducted of 3500 UK companies, suggesting that some employees spend up to two hours a day visiting social networking sites at employers’ expense.

“The figures that we have calculated are minimums and it’s a problem that I foresee will escalate,” Mike Huss, of Peninsula told Manchester Evening News.

“Some companies are happy to let their workers use the internet for personal use, assuming that goals and targets are achieved. However, loss of productivity is proving a major headache and my advice would be for companies to block access,” Huss added.

However, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) told AFP that the total ban to networking sites would be “something of an over-reaction”.

“We believe that good employers should consider allowing their staff personal use of the internet in general at the workplace, during break times, provided this is used responsibly and doesn’t interfere with work or could compromise the employer’s reputation,” the union suggests in its latest publication Facing up to Facebook.

Last month, Sophos found that 43% of workers said their employer blocks Facebook access completely and another 7% said access is restricted depending on whether it’s required for a particular job, news.com writes.

But employers moves to block Facebook is not entirely about productivity. There’s also an issue about security.

According to Sophos, 41% of Facebook users are willing to disclose personal information to complete strangers. And details such as employment history and mobile phone numbers found on Facebook could be used to launch corporate phishing attacks, security experts warn.

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Entry was posted on Monday, September 10th, 2007 at 11:48 pm under Technology, YouTube.

Read more entries by Ruben Francia.
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