Companies use scans to track employees

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original article...

found this off yahoo...

NEW YORK - Some workers are doing it at Dunkin' Donuts, Hilton hotels, even at Marine Corps bases. Employees at a growing number of businesses around the nation 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.
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Manufacturers say these biometric scanners improve efficiency and streamline payroll operations. Employers big and small buy them with the dual goals of curtailing fraud and automating outdated record keeping systems that rely on paper time sheets.

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

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 isn't 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 then filling out a false timecard later to make it looked as though they worked.

Other cities have embraced similar technology.

Cities as big as Chicago and as small as Tahlequah, Okla., have turned to fingerprint-driven ID systems to record employee work hours in recent few years.

Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies, a manufacturer of hand scanners based in Campbell, Calif., said it has sold the devices to Dunkin' Donuts and McDonald's franchises, Hilton hotels and even to track civilian hours at Marine Corps bases.

The systems have been introduced into plenty of workplaces without much grumbling by employees, especially those already used to punching a clock.

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."

the only fine point made in the article, imo was.............

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.

But what I love the most about the article is the author's tone and selective choice of phrasing......

whenever the idea of biometric timecards comes up.... a passive voice is always used to describe the effect upon others....

The new systems, however, have raised complaints
The scanners have rankled draftsmen, planners and architects
The systems have been introduced into plenty of workplaces without much grumbling by employees

a nice thing to note among english grammar enthusiasts.... is:

Passive voice makes sense when the agent performing the action is obvious, unimportant, or unknown or when a writer wishes to postpone mentioning the agent until the last part of the sentence or to avoid mentioning the agent at all.

link

the passive language suggests that the problem is with those who oppose "the new system" and not the inherent nature of the system itself... the system doesn't harm anyone..... it's insignificant

also a wonderful lovely thing is the choice of words..... the workers affected by such a horrible thing are merely 'complaining'.........

they've been "rankled".... a great word; full of meaning.... apparently defining the state of having persistent resentment or festering sores... deriving from the latin: dracunculus

and also.... the workers aren't just 'complaining'..... they're "grumbling".... about having to put up with a system that only counts the amount of hours they were at the work site... having signed in with their fingerprints... and not the time they spent at home, trying to think of better plans, more efficient ways of doing their jobs.....

just complaints and grumbles.... nothing to see here

sure some may take advantage of the current system... but somehow... I don't think too many foremen or managers of city workers are too keen on rewarding those who do..... with extra hours on their time cards


thought this was a nice example of how a simple slight of phrasing and choice of words could slightly alter one's thinking about a supposed objective news article

 

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

Compare the present $410 million price tag price quoted on Wednesday March 26,2008, to the previous $180 million price quoted in this January 23, 2007 article of the "New York Times."

What could have happened in a year that justifies such an increase in price in such a short period of time?

January 23, 2007
New Scanners for Tracking City Workers
By SEWELL CHAN
The Bloomberg administration is devoting more than $180 million toward state-of-the-art technology to keep track of when city employees come and go, with one agency requiring its workers to scan their hands each time they enter and leave the workplace.

The scanning, which began in August at the Department of Design and Construction, has created an uproar at a generally quiet department that focuses on major city construction projects.

At a City Council hearing yesterday, several unions vowed to resist the growing use of biometrics — the unique identifying qualities associated with faces, fingers, hands, eyes and other body parts. The unions called the use of biometrics degrading, intrusive and unnecessary and said experimenting with the technology could set the stage for wider use of biometrics to keep tabs on all elements of the workday.

The use of new tracking technologies has been contentious at more and more workplaces. At Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn, nurses carry radio-frequency identification tags that allow their movements to be tracked, a practice the nurses protested in an arbitration proceeding. A lawyer for the hospital, David N. Hoffman, said the system was used to ensure the quality of patient care and not to keep track of nurses who are on breaks.

The town of Babylon, N.Y., installed global positioning system technology last year in most of its 250 vehicles, including snow plows and dump trucks; drivers complained that the system intruded on their privacy.

Identification devices are at the frontier of debates over workplace privacy, supplanting more traditional concerns like the use of drug tests and polygraphs, said Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a research and advocacy organization in Washington. “New technologies raise questions about the control over disclosure of personal information,” he said.

In New York City, the use of the hand scanners is part of CityTime, an ambitious effort by the city’s Office of Payroll Administration to automate timekeeping. The city has a $181.1 million contract through 2009 with the Science Applications International Corporation to put CityTime in effect, according to the city’s public database of contracts.

Science Applications, based in San Diego, is also a supplier of high-tech services to federal military and intelligence agencies, a fact that has rankled opponents of the use of biometric scanners.

The CityTime project has been under way for about eight years, and officials say it will eventually be able to record attendance and leave requests; collect time forms automatically; coordinate timekeeping with the city’s payroll system; and allow workers and their supervisors to monitor time, attendance and leave online.

No city official appeared at the hearing yesterday, although several were invited. Stu Loeser, a spokesman for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, said the timekeeping project would make payroll administration far more efficient.

“Virtually every employee, including salaried employees in the mayor’s office, has to file a timesheet, even those paid a flat salary,” he said. “Use of scanners, which are not uncommon in the private sector, makes it easier for employees to file timesheets and saves the city personnel costs.”

Mr. Loeser said the Department of Design and Construction was the biggest agency so far to use the hand scanners in conjunction with the new timekeeping system. He noted that the Law Department has used hand scanners for years to control access to offices; even Corporation Counsel Michael A. Cardozo uses them, he said.

The unions say that they support the full automation of timekeeping, including electronic submission of timesheets, and that their complaint is limited to the use of biometric scanners. They said the new devices were plagued by glitches and could even spread diseases because they are unclean. In response to a torrent of concerns about hygiene, the city installed a dispenser with Purell, a liquid hand sanitizer, over each scanner.

“Are these hand scanners the wave of the future,” asked Councilman Joseph P. Addabbo Jr. of Queens, who conducted the hearing as chairman of the Civil Service and Labor Committee, “or are they unnecessary, costly and a detriment to worker morale and productivity?”

The scanners were introduced in August at the department’s headquarters in Long Island City, Queens. Hundreds of workers who keep daily timesheets — generally, those who make less than $66,000 a year — must use the scanners; those who file weekly timesheets, including many managers and supervisors, are exempt.

Also testifying at the hearing was Claude Fort, president of the Civil Service Technical Guild, Local 375 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

“The combination of a factory-floor mentality and installation of the degrading hand-scanner ‘time clocks’ has devastated morale and discouraged city employees from putting in any more than the minimal hours and effort required,” he said. “Not only has there been phenomenal waste and inefficiency resulting from poorly designed software, but the new system has actually cheated city employees out of pay and accrued time.”

Ed Ott, executive director of the New York City Central Labor Council of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., called the hand scanners “a backdoor form of fingerprinting.” He said the new system might violate city labor agreements because it was started without union consent or participation.

Cecelia McCarthy, an official in the Organization of Staff Analysts, another union representing employees at the department, said one worker complained after a colleague with an injured hand was asked to remove a bandage and place the hand — with an open finger wound — on the machine.

Other employees have called the scanners Orwellian. “The body of my person, which includes my palm, belongs to me, and me alone,” one employee, Kerry E. Carnahan, wrote on an internal department Web site last June, after plans for the hand scanners were announced. “It is private.”

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

This seems disingenuous in view of the information presented here from City/Time's official site: http://www.nyc.gov/html/opa/html/about/city_time.shtml

How will CityTime affect me?
You will be able to sign in and out each day using CityTime data collection devices, such as:


A biometric device
A desktop PC
An application Web Clock feature
If you sign in and out at different locations or you are a field employee, CityTime can accommodate you. CityTime allows you to view annual leave, other types of leave usage, and compensatory time balances online.

In addition, you will be able to submit a leave request and, later, check for approval. CityTime will eliminate the use of paper timesheets, time clocks, and logbooks.

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How will I record my time?
Your agency will select the method you will use, based on location and business requirements. Depending on your agency selection, this method might be one or a combination of several methods. Some examples of how agencies may choose to have employees record their time follow:

An employee in an office with a desktop PC equipped with a Web browser may use CityTime to fill out an online timesheet or timecard as well as request leave, access reports, or change a password. This desktop PC also allows a supervisor to grant leave and make adjustments.
Agencies may choose for employees to use the Hand Biometric device to capture arrival and departure times. The biometric reader is placed near the entrance of an office and records an employee's Time In and Time Out in an automated fashion through the presentation of a hand geometric on a template in combination with an ID number.
Employees may be offered the use of a Web Clock feature that can capture Time In, Time Out, Meal Start, and Meal End in an automated fashion on your PC.
An agency may choose to have employees use the Hand Biometric device for arrival and departure times, the Web Clock for meal start and end times, and the desktop PC for leave requests, overtime requests, and submission of final timesheets. [b/]


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How will my requests for leave be reviewed and approved?
Your Agency sets up an approval process in CityTime so that your supervisor or manager can approve requests electronically. You can also check the status of your leave request from a desktop PC.


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How will CityTime affect my paycheck?
When you arrive at work and use one of the data collection devices, CityTime automatically collects your Time In or Time Out information and processes it by comparing it to your schedule and your approved leave requests.

When your timesheet or timecard is certified and approved, CityTime will send the data to PMS. If your time and leave information has not been submitted or is incomplete, it could affect your paycheck. You will be responsible for entering a daily record of your time worked in CityTime and for certifying and submitting your timesheet at the end of the week.


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Who will be able to view my time?
Security profiles will permit only authorized personnel to view information about you in CityTime. For example, only you, your supervisors (your chain of command), and the timekeeping administrator may view your timekeeping records. OPA will help your agency set up security profiles during implementation.


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How will CityTime know what timekeeping rules to follow?
When you "clock in" or request leave, CityTime knows:

Your title
Your union, if you are covered by a union
Your length of time in City service
Your time at your agency
Your work schedule

In my very humble opinion, it seems to me that this process is more expensive, more prone to break down, and more likely to be abused than the system that is being replaced.