certainly the employer invades their empolyee 's privacy. does the boss need to be punished as well?

daniel , california, usa

Would it be different if these people had actually left the office and gone shopping? They are employed to do work on the taxpayers behalf, and whilst on Ebay they are not doing the job they are being paid for. If they have all this time free then that job should now be part time (4 days per week). Their Managers are also guilty of incompetence in not managing their time and workload. The union makes it worse by appearing to suggest that the employees are so stupid that they could not resist the temptation "by the employer" to surf the internet. Sounds like we need to check up on the all the people employed by our councils.

david, Herefords,

How can they be sacked if there managers have not pulled them up on not completing there work on time?

Surely they have a set amount of work that is to be completed by a certain time. If I was there boss and they completed the work I gave them in the time I think is approbate there isn't a problem.

Daniel, London, UK

This is absolute rubbish!!

Firewalls to prevent people from accessing websites in worktime, when they know full well that they should be getting on with the jobs that they are being paid for??!!

The world is going crazy!

What ever happened to individuals having common sense and integrity enough just to get on with their jobs?

eBay the great employee trap of the 21st C!!!!

claire, southampton, hants

Weren't the unions claiming only last week that their members weren't getting to spend enough time playing on the internet during office hours? They really ought to get their story straight (or perhaps just admit that they have too much time on their hands, and stop squandering their members' subs).

johnny, London,

Sacking them is not the answer.
Simply block the site's you dont want them to visit. If they use a proxy to bypass your block, then sack them.

Phill Barlow, Wirral, England

Oh, for heaven's sake. With current research showing that many (if not most) people in an office environment are doing as little work as is humanly possible, is this news really surprising? Remember the DVLA computer being brought to a standstill because it was heartily clogged with pornography? I guarantee that if organisations were to remove access to the internet at work there would be an outcry of people declaring their 'human right' to view Ebay et al.

AspeMum, North Yorkshire,

Wasn't it only the other day the TUC argued employers shouldn't restrict access to websites, in particular social networking sites such as Facebook? Is this any different? It is about time people took responsibility for their own actions. You cannot expect to blame external factors, 'temptations', when you are being idle! If you don't do any work, you will quite rightly get sacked. QED.

HC, Kabul,

Pathetic workforce management
These staff should have been repremanded not sacked. So, by the way, should thier manager(s). What were they doing letting them get away with this...cant they see the screens. Dont they listen to banter?
Think of all the expertise lost.
Pathetic

Paul Hubbard, Nottingham, UK

Surely this problem can only be the fault of the employer? If these employees were able to get their work done and still spend two hours a day on ebay then it is their managers that are at fault. The employees were obvioulsy not challenged by their roles or workloads and were not monitored properly by superiors. The civil service has a reputation for employees that 'don't bother to work on Friday afternoons' and general laziness in the work force. However, it is not the 'lazy' employees that we should blame but the inefficient structuring and the lapse attitudes of managers in the public sector.

Matthew, London,

If you use Unison's logic how long before we hear that employees caught speeding had 'temptation put in their way' by virtue of being provided with cars capable of more than 70mph.

Bill, Chesham,

As long as the staff gets their work done, who cares. If they have too much time on their hands, this may mean they're employing too much staff, or maybe that there's a slump in work. If not, they should be sacked, indeed, for not doing their jobs properly, NOT for going on ebay (I mean, EBAY?!!).

starling, Lancaster,

The technology is there to block specific websites, specific types of site and specific content, cheaply. The same box also acts as an content blocker for emails, stopping mails with specific key words. Apart from the odd question, there is no impact...

Clint Trooper, York, UK

It's disappointing the union takes such a ridiculous view. Would they say the same about a bank worker exposed to the temptation of large sums of cash? What about their members who are working harder to cover for these slackers? No wonder the trades union movement is generally treated as a joke.

MDHinton, Sieradz, Poland

This happens in every office, even my managers surf the net!
I am surprised though that these guys were not warned first, we have Youtube and other site blocked so it would be easy for their IT to do the same. me thinks this was a delibrate ploy by their management to lure, trap and fire them.

Rob, Brum, West Mids

Well, Mr Brown has been instrumental in creating huge numbers of highly paid non-jobs in the public sector as part of his glorious socialist revolution, so don't be surprised when people with nothing worthwhile to do turn to the Internet.

Doug, Glasgow,

The unions can't have this both ways. Only a few weeks ago, the TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said of Facebook: "It's unreasonable for employers to try to stop their staff from having a life outside work, just because they can't get their heads around the technology... Better to invest a little time in working out sensible conduct guidelines, so that there don't need to be any nasty surprises for staff or employers." He added a ban "may be something of an overreaction".

And now we have union spokesmen calling for a ban to protect their staff from their own idleness!

John Allen, Oxford, UK

From Terry Cave, vice president EMEA at St. Bernard

Deliberate abuse of this kind is on the increase - as is inadvertent misuse of the Internet. But there are some simple and cost effective measures that companies and local authorities like this one can put in place to restrict employees from accessing certain websites during office hours.

Our dedicated Internet-filtering appliance, iPrismâ„¢ monitors and controls online access. For schools, local authorities and companies like the Carphone Warehouse for example, it has resolved many of the security issues they faced before. This might include access to inappropriate material on porn or job websites, or simple surfing as in this case.

iPrism™ enables an IT manager to enforce a simple but effective Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) for Internet access which is now essential from a legislative perspective. It can therefore help to put the MD’s mind at ease, as well as increasing productivity during office hours.

Terry Cave, Surrey, UK

I totally agree with the view they are paid to work and should be working I hope the council management do the same instead of swanning of to play golf or power lunches .There are plenty of people on the dole struggling to survive who would do the job for these wages. When people lucky enough to be in work and on decent wages abuse the system Who really are the wasters ?

Sheena , alnwick, northumberland

Why does a Union have to take the attitude "It's not their fault, temptation was put in their way". Are those members of staff really happy with that defence. If I was there employer I'm not sure I would want them working for me if they were that weak willed. These people took an opportunity, contrary to the principles of behaving as a conscientious employee, and they were caught. So far they are guilty of being moderately stupid. Allow the defence suggested and they become weak, vapid and pathetic.

Mark, Chelmsford, Essex