The TUC, Unison and a number of international unions and union networks are currently building their own "island" in the virtual world, and encouraging trade unionists to sign up and get involved in online social networking.

Second Life is, of course, just one branded virtual reality – or "metaverse". There are others, including Whyville and Entropia Universe.

Although some firms have embraced virtual worlds for recruitment and training (keep an eye on XpertHR for some case studies in the near future), these are early days for most companies, and Second Life can feel rather unpopulated at times.

However, there have been persistent rumours on techie blogs that Google plans to launch its own metaverse some time this year. And with Google Earth plus building tools such as SketchUp at its disposal, that could give things quite a boost.

It appears that if virtual worlds ever really take off, employers that take their business into the metaverse are going to find trade unions waiting for them.