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Scanners used to check on workersNew York: Some workers are doing it at Dunkin’ Donuts, at Hilton hotels, even at Marine Corps bases. Employees at a growing number of businesses 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. Manufacturers say these biometric devices improve efficiency and streamline payroll operations. Employers big and small buy them with the dual goals of keeping workers honest and automating outdated record keeping systems that rely on paper time sheets. The new systems have raised complaints, however, from some workers who see the efforts to track their movements as excessive or creepy. The International Biometric Group, a consulting firm, estimated that 635 million worth of these high tech devices were sold last year, and projects that the industry will be worth more than 1 billion by 2011. 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. New York expects to save 60 million per year by modernising a complicated record keeping system that now requires one full time timekeeper for every 100 to 250 employees. Another benefit of the system is curtailing fraud. Several times each year, New York City’s Department of Investigation charges city employees with taking unauthorised time off and falsifying timecards to make it look as though they worked.
Source : DNA
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