Good employers should consider letting staff enhance their social lives on Facebook and other internet sites during lunchbreaks, the Trades Union Congress said on Wednesday.

Entering the debate on staff use of company time and equipment to broaden personal horizons, the trade union body said: “Many, especially younger employees, now see online social networking as the norm.”

It was important for companies to devise policies on the use of the internet that would recognise this fact, it said. There have been several examples in recent months of companies banning the use of Facebook on their premises.

In its advice document to employers, the TUC said: “Every workplace in the UK is going to have to deal with the issues sooner or later. Tackling it sooner, and in co-operation with employees and unions, should be in employers’ interests in avoiding possible pitfalls.”

Expanding on the theme, Brendan Barber, the general secretary of the TUC – who does not have a Facebook profile – said: “Simply cracking down on use of new web tools like Facebook is not a sensible solution to a problem which is only going to get bigger ... 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.”

Katja Hall, the CBI’s head of employment policy, said: “The CBI’s advice to companies is that they should have a policy on staff use of the internet during work time, whatever the website.”

“It is then down to individual employers how they tackle the increasing use of popular social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace etc. Employers do not want to police the private lives of staff or monitor private conversations.”

The TUC added that it thought employers could face charges of discrimination if they use Facebook or similar sites such as Bebo, MySpace or Friendster to vet potential employees.