Smile, you’re now on candid work camera
Consulting firm Deloitte has used this device in Canada. Already it has discovered that the treadmills employees lobbied for have hardly seen any action. No doubt they will be gone with alacrity.
Bank of America is using the lanyard in its customer service centres. The bank has more than 10,000 employees around the world.
The purpose of this sophisticated technology is to increase the profitability of business.
Are we likely to see this type of employee-monitoring on our own shores or would this be considered a breach of privacy in New Zealand?
The Privacy Act states that personal information shall not be collected by any agency unless the information is collected for a lawful purpose connected with a function or activity of that agency and that the information is necessary for that purpose.
The obvious question becomes: Is your employer entitled to know how much you talk, whether you fidget or how often you are not at your desk? Arguably yes.
Some readers will be aware that GPS tracking devices are now used by employers to track the use of employerowned vehicles. In a case involving Downer New Zealand, an employee, Robert Stuart, was accused of falsifying his timesheets.
He was a mobile patrolman undertaking maintenance duties in Nelson City and surrounding areas.
GPS data from his vehicle contradicted the information Stuart had recorded. He claimed that sometimes when the GPS showed that his vehicle was at home he was in fact doing maintenance work on his equipment.
However, he did accept he had sometimes taken excessive lunch breaks. The Employment Relations Authority ultimately held that the employer’s decision to dismiss him while relying on GPS information was reasonable.
But what about employees who interact with the public, whether in call centres or in retail, and are concerned about recording what the public say?
When you ring a call centre you’re often told that the call may be recorded, so indeed many already record conversations and notify the relevant public.
The device Humanyze has created, we are told, does not store conversations but rather metadata that can be analysed in a more aggregate context, so perhaps there is no problem there.
If Humanyze’s device does become a fixture of New Zealand workplaces, employers would have to implement its use openly as the Privacy Act would require employees to give their consent.
Enhanced monitoring of employees by advanced technology allows more specific actions to be observed. Developments of this kind will certainly not be isolated to American firms.
No doubt this will become an increasingly contentious issue in times to come. I am sure if George Orwell was still with us a sequel to Nineteen Eightyfour would be in the pipeline.
Already Deloitte has discovered that the treadmills employees lobbied for have hardly seen any action.
Peter Cullen is a partner at Cullen – the Employment Law Firm. He can be contacted at peter@cullenlaw.co.nz.