Telstra may face police probe over GPS — This news item out of Australia is just the beginning of this sort of thing. Wait until it hits the USA. What I found interesting is that there is a surveillance Devices Act to protect the public (supposedly).
Telstra could face a police investigation following a report which claims workers were monitored illegally by surveillance devices in their vehicles. Victorian Workplace Rights Advocate Tony Lawrence said he had serious concerns that some Telstra employees did not genuinely consent to the installation of GPS devices last year.
“And so I am concerned that Telstra may have breached the SDA (Surveillance Device Act),” Mr Lawrence said.
“As this a criminal matter, I proposed to refer it to the Victoria police for further investigation.”
The Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union of Australia (CEPU) claimed that technicians were threatened with dismissal as they were monitored in their work vehicles.
found by Chris Martin
I don’t see what the big fuss is; the vehicles in question are owned by the company, not by the workers. The point of the thing was probably to make sure that employees were not using company vehicles for personal use, which is grounds to get you fired anyway. What’s the problem here? It’s the equivalent of calling an employees doctor to find out if he really is too sick to come to work; a bit of a privacy intrusion but I don’t see why it’s so unreasonable.
I think this is a case of people following the letter of the law and not the spirit.
Most company fleets these days have GPS in them. The dispatchers monitor the position of the vehicles. It is not just to keep track of where employees go, but to also identify the best route to take, if a customer needs service the dispatcher can find the closest truck. This is a non issue to me if the GPS is in a company vehicle and the employee knows about it. Remember the Nextel “you agitating my dots’ commercial. So this is far from new for the US.
I don’t see the problem either.
Office workers can be fired for a single personal phone call or coming in a few minutes late. Field employees should have some sort of oversight to make sure they are where they are being paid to be.
New york cabbies are threatening to sue over similar technology.
This just amounts to saying “We demand the right to goof off and not get caught”.
NY cabbies are threatening to sue because they’re going to be required to foot the bill personally for several thousand dollar$ to install the system.
#1, #2, #3 – Ditto.
Who titled this post? “…track employees like dogs”?
I am not aware of anyone who pays their dog to drive around in a vehicle worth thousands of dollars not to mention the cost of tools, etc. that may be in/on said vehicle.
Since when is it wrong for a company to know exactly where it’s equipment is at all times?
Take off the tin foil hat whoever wrote the title to this one.
I don’t see a problem having this in vehicles. It’s not like they RFID their employees.
A field technician job used to be that there was more mobile freedom than just sitting at a desk all day long. Part of that freedom was the ability to work one job in one part of town and go across town out of their zone to enjoy a good cup of coffee or something– and yes, goof off a little (just a little). With GPS installed many of these techs are confined to their areas. What if their area stinks? With GPS software that silently runs in the background and alerts a foreman immediately on their PC if a vehicle is out of zone, the freedom that once came with a field service job is waning. It’s all about turning everybody into f*cking robots.
#5 – Ditto your ditto.
#8
Yes goofing off has historically been part of field jobs.
I was copy machine repair man for 10 years. Read a lot of good books while parked under trees in those days. Got a lot of personal errands done. Even popped in on the girlfriend in the middle of the day a few times.
Now I manage a team of 8 people who travel coast to coast. If I could somehow attach a device to these peoples bodies and be able to track them on a map I would do it. Would gladly let anybody who was not comfortable find another job.
#8.
You’re assuming (I’m assuming, I didn’t RTA) that these employees are not given a lunch break to go get a good cup of coffee. Or if they need time to run an errand that they couldn’t phone/radio in and request time to do so.
I’ve known quite a few people who abused the freedom they were given by having a field job (sleeping in the van or not going to scheduled stops). I think it’s perfectly acceptable for the vehicle owners/employers to track their equipment.
#10 – pay ’em a bonus if they agree to wear trackers.
Oh man… so many things wrong here.
First, the title is wrong. They aren’t tracking employees. They are tracking vehicles that they own. The employee can always leave the company vehicle to perform personal tasks.
Second. I think the point that is being overlooked is “Were the employees aware that their trucks had GPS tracking?”. If it was done on the sly, then that is a serious problem. If it was not, then I don’t see the problem.
Third: If the company allows personal use of vehicles of varying degrees, then they should have provided a way for the operator to switch of GPS tracking.