Birmingham City Council is clamping down on staff sending personal emails while at work.

It seems the council is miffed that so much of its IT resource is used up by people emailing their friends.

A document seen by ICBirmingham suggests that unregulated use of email is "a drain on productivity". And it appears that it is also keen to introduce email monitoring to ensure that email abuse does not go undetected.

The report claims that the council is to introduce a new code of conduct outlawing the sending of personal emails while also giving the green light for the authority to snoop on emails.

However, Birmingham City Council employees will be allowed to send a limited number of personal email, as long as any attachments don?t exceed two megabytes. (So no concept albums then? - Ed)

Research published last year found that email and Net abuse at work have become the number one reason why UK employees face the sack.

London solicitors KLegal and Personnel Today magazine found that disciplinary cases for email and Net abuse at work exceeded those for dishonesty, violence, and health & safety breaches put together. ®

Related Story
Net abuse top reason for the sack