I’m home!
If you’ve wondered why there hasn’t been anything new in a few days, it is because I was in Gallop, New Mexico, taking pictures, attending Navajo Church, and meeting and interviewing people in connection with a website I’m doing for some missionaries in Gallop. I had planned a travelblog but got sick the day I arrived. Despite strep and a head cold, I still had fun. I will be writing a lot about the trip in the next few days.
I received the documentation today regarding the GPS tracking of county employees. Can anyone shed some light on what the county is doing and why SBPEA has agreed to it? I plan to post the documentation soon but would like more info.
Check back tomorrow as there should be a lot more up.
April 3rd, 2008 at 1:12 pm
The County is tracking employees for a very simple reason, they want to ensure that employees are where they should be. That seems reasonable enough, except for one thing - it’s illegal to track people electronically in California. There are exceptions for law enforcement and for the tracking of vehicles, but the law is very clear.
The Association entered into an agreement with the County that any data obtained via the tracking system would not be used to evaluate or discipline employees, and the County adheres to this agreement by not citing the tracking system in their evidence. If the system shows that an employee is at home or the mall when they’re supposed to be at a work site, an investigator or supervisor will call or visit the work site, and “find” that the employee is AWOL.
I think the Association’s public position is that the law will soon be modified as a result of the massive deployment of GPS devices in cell phones, and in the event of such a change, employees will be better protected with the agreement being in place. They neglected to recognize, however, that they don’t have the authority to negotiate away employees’ right to privacy, which doesn’t disappear when someone shows up for work.
I believe your documentation refers to the system used by Environmental Health, but my concerns are more widespread. I strongly suspect that GPS tracking is enabled on County cell phones and Blackberrys, despite the County’s claims to the contrary.
Bottom line - the County picks and chooses which laws they want to follow, and if someone doesn’t like it - tough luck.
April 4th, 2008 at 9:01 am
I think the potential for abuse is obvious and I think with the county’s and SBPEA’s history of abusing employees, it goes without saying that abuse will take place.
The concept that the tracking will not result in discipline is ridiculous. For example, the department notices that an employee is taking an extra five minutes for lunch each day. For a field employee, that would have never been noticed to begin with. Now, with GPS they will know. So then the department simply has that employee followed for a period of time, and guess what? Disciplinary action.
Employees should not be taking an extra five minutes each day. But the reality is that most employees do not take both breaks, most employees do arrive at work a little early and/or stay a little late. I know from experience that when they want to get you, the total number of hours worked is irrelevant. The employee may very well work his nine hours plus, but because he took 35 minutes at lunch, he will still be disciplined.
This is just one more example of SBPEA selling out employees. All anyone has to do is look at their magazine and website to see they are more interested in kissing Brad’s backside than in protecting employees. This is one more reason why county employees need to vote for Rita Vogler and NOT Brad Mitzelfelt.
I will have the documentation up in a few days. I want to give the newspapers a chance to use it first.