More Employers Scanning Workers' Hands

Biometric Technology Replacing Timecards; Employers Tout Efficiency, Unions Cry Foul

(AP)  Some workers are doing it at Dunkin' Donuts, at Hilton hotels, even at Marine Corps bases.

Employees at a growing number of businesses are starting and ending their days by pressing a hand or finger to a scanner that logs the precise time of their arrival and departure - information that is automatically reflected in payroll records.

Manufacturers say these biometric devices improve efficiency and streamline payroll operations. Employers big and small buy them with the dual goals of keeping workers honest and automating outdated record-keeping systems that rely on paper time sheets.

The new systems have raised complaints, however, from some workers who see the efforts to track their movements as excessive or creepy.

"They don't even have to hire someone to harass you anymore. The machine can do it for them," said Ed Ott, executive director of the New York City Central Labor Council of the AFL-CIO. "The palm print thing really grabs people as a step too far."

The International Biometric Group, a consulting firm, estimated that $635 million worth of these high-tech devices were sold last year, and projects that the industry will be worth more than $1 billion by 2011.

Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies, a leading manufacturer of hand scanners based in Campbell, California, said it has sold at least 150,000 of the devices to Dunkin' Donuts and McDonald's franchises, Hilton hotels and to Marine Corps bases, who use them to track civilian hours.

Protests over using palm scanners to log employee time have been especially loud in New York City, where officials are spending $410 million to install an automated attendance tracking system that may eventually be used by 160,000 city workers.

Scores of civil servants who are members of Local 375 of the Civil Service Technical Guild rallied Tuesday against a plan to add the city medical examiner's office to the list of 17 city agencies which already have the scanners in place.

The scanners have rankled draftsmen, planners and architects in the city's Parks Department, which began using them last year.

"Psychologically, I think it has had a huge impact on the work force here because it is demeaning and because it's a system based on mistrust," said Ricardo Hinkle, a landscape architect who designs city parks.

He called the timekeeping system a bureaucratic intrusion on professionals who never used to think twice about putting in extra time on a project they cared about, and could rely on human managers to exercise a little flexibility on matters regarding work hours.

"The creative process isn't one that punches in and punches out," he said.

A spokesman for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Matthew Kelly, said the system is not meant to be intrusive and has clear benefits over old-style punch clocks or paper time sheets.

The city expects to save $60 million per year by modernizing a complicated record keeping system that now requires one full-time timekeeper for every 100 to 250 employees. The new system, dubbed CityTime, would free up thousands of city employees to do less paper-pushing.

Another benefit of the system is curtailing fraud. Several times each year, New York City's Department of Investigation charges city employees with taking unauthorized time off and falsifying timecards to make it looked as though they worked.

Other cities have embraced similar technology.

Cities as big as Chicago and as small as Tahlequah, Oklahoma, have turned to fingerprint-driven ID systems to record employee work hours in recent few years. And the systems have been introduced into plenty of other workplaces without much grumbling by employees, especially those already used to punching a clock.

But the New York workers are not the first to fight it. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees complained vigorously two years ago after the city of Pittsburgh proposed installing fingerprint readers.

"We had a lot of questions, a lot of concerns, and so far they haven't put it in," said AFCME Council 84 Director Richard Caponi.

Jon Mooney, Ingersoll Rand's general manger of biometrics, said the privacy concerns are unfounded. The hand scanners do not keep large databases of people's fingerprints - only a record of their hand shape, he said.

Still, union officials in New York said they are concerned that the machines could eventually be used not just to crack down on employees skipping work, but to nitpick honest workers or invade their privacy.

"The bottom line is that these palm scanners are designed to exercise more control over the workforce," said Claude Fort, president of Local 375. "They aren't there for security purposes. It has nothing to do with productivity... It is about control, and that is what makes us nervous."

[geratric1943]

The real reason the unions don''t like this is because they can''t punch in for those who are not there.

[bobnjersey]

[Your definition of bigotry exactly describes posters like newster1 on here ... Yet my posts which don''''t even hold a tiny candle to these type of bigoted remarks, are deleted. Nuff said there bobnjersey. Where''''s you scorning of this behavior? Huh pal? You can''''t do it can you!? ]
[Posted by singinrick08 at 08:36 AM : Mar 28, 2008]

rick, i''ve seen you on more than a few occasions go thru a thread and pick each message that speaks to a perspective that doesn''t match yours and use demeaning and condescending language to basically say to that poster that they are wrong, they are lost souls, they don''t know what they''re talking about. you freely label anyone who doesn''t agree w/ you as a ''far left liberal'' ... as though it was a slur.

any criticism of anything you say or do is viewed as an anti-christian crusade ... an assault on your religion.

you yourself are as intollerant of their beliefs as they are of yours ... it''s just they are not the ones throwing around the claim of bigotry so freely as you do.

you claim to be a christian ... and yet you are one of the most aggressive, judgemental, and narrow minded posters i see in the online forums ... on cbs and elsewhere.

i believe their censoring of your posts is wrong ... as i believe it would be for anyone posting. if you don''t like what they''re saying ... don''t read it. lobby cbs to incorporate an ''ignore this user'' functionality instead of whinning about the rules of engagement and what others are doing.

[grammawhamma]

Your handprint at work is just another step up to it. First we had to have our signature to prove who we are. Then we have to have a license to prove who we are. Then we have to have a license for ID anytime a cop wants to check it. Then we have to have a card to do banking or make purchases. Now with that card alone they can track every purchase you made that day.
And it helps the police find you.

At some point we need to exercise our right to privacy and find a better way.

Posted by RowdyTexan2 at 11:02 AM : Mar 27, 2008

It helps the police find you?!? So what are your deep dark secrets that you don''t want the police to find you? All the methods of identity you mentioned above are for your own good (with the exception of that platic card). If you are an honest law abiding citizen you wouldn''t have a problem with it.

[michellem99-2009]

what is 666..THEY USE TO MAKE ME PUT MY THUMB PRIRT OM MY CHECK BEFORE THEY CASH IT.. Oh the folks in parts of of MO are funny. Told them the cival war eaded in 1865. They don''t so much as trush the business cross the river. Yer boss can still rip yer off.I worked years ago that they said I did not. They had them punch card clock. I told them yer find the card as yer pay me. They have to make that blind user..The bloody sighted.

[libsrweak]

in light of how humanity can easily lured into something a lot deeper than they can handle..this is something that can whirlwind into something humanity will never recover

[libsrweak]

Posted by Providence_ at 11:42 PM : Mar 27, 2008
+ report abuse

***************

I can give you GOD''s message in one paragraph...

"its like a finger pointed towards the moon, do not focus on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory"

when you understand what it means..consider yourself enligthened..

[radiob-2009]

It''s 1984 courtesy of both political parties and the NWO. Tracking every movement a employee makes,along with eavesdropping on Americans, the Constitution being ripped to shreds with no habeaus corpus, illegal torture of "suspects", the continued selling of American jobs and the continued monopolization of all sectors of the economy.Just wait until the chip is placed into your hand or forehead and it will be complete.

[brianbwb-2009]

If applied correctly, and without nefarious agenda, palm scanning is a neutral way of ensuring accuracy. However, we know from a too many examples that a company can and will manipulate data, and use it to cheat employees, as well as elections.

In short, employees will find it very hard to scam the clock against the company, but companies will have yet another tool they can use to do the same thing against the employees.

[providence_-2009]

the mark of the beast

Posted by libsrweak at 11:36 PM : Mar 27, 2008

More Employers Scanning Workers'' Hands You can escape the mark of the beast by going to http colon slash slash pilgrimswaylighted dot blogspot dot com do not add the www at all. Ask God to help you understand it.

[libsrweak]

the mark of the beast