10:41am UK, Monday June 05, 2006

Staff watching the World Cup on the internet at work could cost the British economy almost £4bn, it is claimed. 

Law firm Brabners Chaffe Street has come up with the figure, based on an hourly wage of £12.50.

Watching online to cost firms

It calculates that during the tournament, if just half of British workers surf the net for an hour a day, it will cost the UK nearly £4bn in lost time.

The firm, which has offices in Manchester, Liverpool and Preston, is advising managers to set out what they think is acceptable behaviour before kick off.

The warning comes a day after the BBC announced it would be screening all of its World Cup games online, to enable office workers to watch the action live from their desks.

And with most England matches taking place in the evening, football fans are also likely to spend much of their working day keeping up-to-date with team selections, injury scares and other results.

"Absenteeism is unlikely to be as big a problem this year as it was in 2002," said Joe Shelston, an employment law expert with Brabners Chaffe Street.

"But the danger for employers is that they assume that so long as their workers are at their desk, there is no problem.

"With many more entertaining websites and chatrooms than there were four years ago, football fans are going to find themselves spending more and more time online when they should be working."

Mr Shelston suggested that employers set out an IT policy and what they see as acceptable behaviour before the start of the event.

"This could be done simply by circulating a reminder outlining what is acceptable, or drawing workers' attention to your existing IT policy," he said.