Some UBC employees were handed 10-day suspensions without pay for trading and viewing pornography on the internet. (CBC)

Thirteen staff members at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver have been disciplined for distributing pornography on work computers.

The penalties range from letters of discipline to 10-day suspensions without pay.

The employees were trading and viewing the pornographic pictures over the internet, according to university spokesman Scott Macrae.

"Management had discovered inappropriate use of the computer network and computers, having to do with the distribution of sexually explicit material," Macrae said.

Macrae wouldn't say what departments the employees were working in. The disciplinary measures were carried out over the past few months, he said.