Virgin Blue sacks 20 employees for viewing pornography

Australia's second largest airline Virgin Blue has sacked up to twenty of its staff after they were found viewing pornography on work computers.

The sacking had come on June 2 after an extensive investigation by the airline's head office in Brisbane.

While Virgin Blue would not confirm who the staff were, it is believed they were members of the airline's pit crew, who are involved in refuelling and minor maintenance.

It is believed that the employees from Virgin Blue's Sydney and Brisbane terminals were caught taking part in a pornographic video-swapping ring.

"First of all I want to make it very clear these staff were not doing anything illegal," News.com.au quoted company spokeswoman Danielle Keighery as saying.

"We have a very clear code of conduct . . . about computer usage," she stated.

Keighery said the sackings were the result of one incident but would not comment on specifics.

"We did run a very fair process to investigate the situation and that investigation resulted in several terminations," she added.

A small number of Virgin Blue staff had been dismissed in the past 18 months for a similar issue.