Posted on 03/12/2006 9:25:27 PM PST by ncountylee
When the Town of Babylon installed global positioning system technology in most of its fleet of 250 vehicles in January, officials touted it as a way to improve efficiency, particularly during emergencies such as snowstorms. However, the system also is being used to monitor worker behavior -- a realization that has left town .employees increasingly nervous.
One of a growing number of municipalities and corporations around the country using GPS to track workers, Babylon has become the local flash point in the debate over how to balance the desire to improve efficiency with the need to protect worker privacy.
Already, the use of GPS has resulted in the firing of police officers in New Jersey for sleeping on the job, and protest demonstrations by snowplow drivers in Massachusetts. Some national labor unions are so concerned they have tried to include language in bargaining contracts limiting the use of GPS.
In Babylon, the $65,000-a-year system was installed in mid-January in snowplows, dump trucks and public safety vehicles, among others. About a week later, three workers were caught and eventually disciplined -- two for goofing off on town time and a supervisor for failing to report them.
"If you do something wrong, they're going to get you," one town snowplow driver said, glaring at the GPS device on his dashboard. Like most town workers contacted for this story, the .driver asked not to be named because he feared retribution.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
Hard to fight this evidence. Hope GPS is widely adopted, taxpayers need all possible help fighting public union abuses.
Sucks when government employees have to work like the rest of us, doesn't it?
"But you need a transit to see if they are breathing."
Many seem to forget that a job entails work, not just a paycheck. Workers privacy does not necessarily extend to time on the clock. Unions has better think twice about protecting those who refuse to work for their pay into contract language. There are honest workers who already feel cheated by slackers.
Why am I not surprised that they are finding sin in a town called Babylon?
Perceptive fellow we have here! So, just don't do anything wrong. It can't be THAT hard to put in an honest day's work.
You're so insensitive.
Not if you spoof it, jam it, or temporarily relocate it...
God forbid your boss should be watching you when you are at work.
"Alas, Babylon"..
Real ID comeing next to you!
And if you do that, eventually someone will notice.
How is this bad? Why shouldn't OUR employees (civil servants) be required to perform the work we pay them to do?
Yeah, someone may notice if you do it enough.
I don't find it bad tracking employees on the clock. I just made a comment about not being GPS observed. If an employee went to those lengths just to goof off, he should look for another job.
A PennDOT truck.
I have a pal who plows for the state, they put a GPS in his vehicle.
Now he has to park under an overpass to sleep.
Workers on the job have a very limited sphere of privacy while at work. The employer buys the worker's time for 8 hours each day. If the worker is spending that time in the dounut shop it is veery much the employer's business.
Won't work....the record logs will simply mark where he disappeared from GPS view, then how long it was before he came back into GPS tracking view....the null point of the tracking plot would show exactly where the over-pass is. Tell your friend he needs to dope out a different strategy!
I don't know a thing about these systems, but if it does not also provide a way to review the route a vehicle took and how long it took to get from point A to point B, I would be surprised.
It should not matter how long he stays parked under the bridge, if they can tell it took two hours to make a trip that should have taken 10 minutes he will soon have to answer some questions
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