Council to fingerprint staff
September 16, 2008
Westminster County Council has introduced a biometric recognition scheme for its staff.
The technology has been introduced to try and prevent “buddy punching”, which is when an employee checks in for another. The system requires employee’s to clock in using the fingerprint reader and will be used for community protection staff and road sweepers.
Westminters Director of communicty protection, Dean Ingledew has said:
“We have a duty of care to know where our staff are, that they are safe and that council taxpayers are getting value for money from staff who are working properly. The system mainly applies to members of staff who are street-based and often work alone late at night. Many say they actually feel safer with this system because if anyone fails to sign in or out it is flagged up immediately and calls are made to find out where they are.”
Although Mr Ingledew may be all up for this new system, other people are not so keen. The Westminster branch of Unison certainly doesn’t agree to this and has told its members not to co-operate, as the scheme is based on “mis-trust”.
“We don¹t trust the council to hold this data securely and see no justification for the scheme.”
Working in an office environment means that this sort of technology would not be necessary with our employee’s, but i do think it is a good idea in other industries?
What’s your opinion on this and is it something that could be incorporated into your company?
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