A customer called the other day completely flustered over a
situation with one of her employees. The employee had refused to enable GPS tracking on their iPhone stating that it was
a "violation of their civil liberties." Understanding that allowing a company to track your movements, from a
personal device, could be disconcerting to some people, the customer bought a
company iPad for the employee. The
employee still refused to allow GPS tracking. This time exclaiming that it was "unethical to track a person." Needless
to say, our customer was at a loss. She
wanted to know first if it was a violation of civil rights. Secondly, was
there some validity to his claim or did he just not want to be tracked?
Hmmmm…. An Interesting Question….
As far as the legality of using GPS to track your employees, I can’t say. I am not
a lawyer and laws in every state differ.
If this is a concern at your company, I would recommend seeking legal
council. It never hurts to dot your I’s
and cross your T’s in legal matters. However we can take a look at the question, is it ethical?
To start, let’s look at why a company would even need to employ
GPS tracking for employees. While there
may be many reasons, the following account provides a good argument for GPS tracking and may apply to many businesses.
Automated Waste Disposal Incorporated* started using GPS to ensure their truck
drivers didn’t speed and to make sure they were on track to meet their delivery
schedule. They were sure it would reduce
overtime and labor costs. They were right! After implementing the GPS tracking system, the number of overtime hours
dropped from 300 to 70 hours on average, per week.
This story, at first, made me sad. I like to believe that humankind is innately
good and that for the most part try to make good choices. So I knew there had to be more to these
numbers than employees fudging on their time cards or driving slower to get a
few extra hours on a check. Guess what? I was right! Knowing they were being tracked did help to keep a few employees, who were taking advantage, stay honest. The real money savings, however, came from higher
productivity. The business became more
productive because they were better able to track route guidance and improve
fleet scheduling by assigning the closest vehicle to the service call thus eliminating
commute time.
We can see that using GPS has the ability to save companies money. But, what are your rights as
an employee? I believe it all comes down
to one word, “contract.” When an
employee takes a job, they agree to complete a task. The employer has the right to monitor the
employee to make sure the task is getting done in a fair amount of time, and
done the way they would like it done. In
exchange, the employer pays the employee for their services. If using GPS tracking helps the employer
monitor a job successfully, improving quality and increasing productivity,
then they are within their ethical bounds to use the GPS tool while the
employee is at work.
Does GPS tracking violate basic civil liberties? Is it unethical? After doing a lot of research, I have come to the
conclusion that it does not, as long as employees are only being tracked while “on the
clock.” When we see numbers, like
Automated Waste Disposal saw, we can easily come to the conclusion that GPS tracking of employees will only become more predominant for businesses dealing
with a mobile workforce.
No comments:
Post a Comment