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DDC Staffers Call It
Demeaning
City: More Efficient Mayoral officials have responded by asking what the fuss is about, saying that the system is intended solely as a more effective method of recording the time that employees work. "It is about efficiency and accuracy," said one administration official, who spoke on condition that he not be identified. "It is not more onerous than having to sign a time-sheet," which, he noted, all employees subjected to the palm-scanner previously had to do. The system was first introduced at the Law Department 11 years ago and has since been expanded to cover employees at the Office of Collective Bargaining, Office of Payroll Administration, Office of the Actuary, Financial Information Services Agency, Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, Conflicts of Interest Board, Campaign Finance Board, and Equal Employment Practices Commission. It is in the process of being phased in at the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Not a 'Buddy' System Since it relies on the reading of an employee's palm, the system is resistant to time-honored evasions like having a co-worker punch out for you hours after you have left your workplace. Except, said Tech Guild First Vice President Jon Forster, that at the Department of Design and Construction, the battleground for a system that will soon be expanded to other municipal agencies including the Department of City Planning, "We have never had a big issue with 'buddy-punching.''' The Tech Guild, which is Local 375 of District Council 37, is not opposed to the city having workers clock in and out each day, Mr. Forster told reporters at City Hall during a press conference Oct. 5. Cost Employees' Time But the palm-scanners, besides being intrusive - ''They can track you everywhere you go, including to the bathroom," Mr. Forster said - cheat employees out of time actually worked or force them to remain at their desks after their shifts have actually ended to make sure that their work time has been accurately registered. He said that the machines record time in quarter-hour increments, and so an employee who arrived at work at 9:08 would be recorded as having begun work at 9:15. In cases where an employee was not going to be working on a Monday, he or she would have to stay at work the preceding Friday for up to half an hour after logging off on the scanner to ensure that it was recorded, or risk not being credited properly when payroll information was taken based on the scanners the following Tuesday morning. Fort: It's Offensive "It is very offensive, it is degrading, it is demeaning," said Tech Guild President Claude Fort. Equally aggravating, he indicated, is that "managers are not required to put their hands in the scanners." Nor, for that matter, are other DDC employees earning at least $62,000 a year, fueling employees' anger that they are being singled out based on earnings and/or union status. "The outrage in DDC is very high; the morale is very low," Mr. Fort said. A sense of just how overwrought some employees have become was provided by a legal brief filed by the Tech Guild as part of an improper practice charge it has brought against the city at the Office of Collective Bargaining. 'Makes Me Ashamed' It quoted from an e-mail that was posted on a DDC bulletin board by an agency staffer stating, "The body of my person, which includes my palm, belongs to me, & me alone. It is private. For me to have to surrender any part of this, & at a level as intimate as the tiny folds of skin of my palm, is excessively intrusive. It forces a level of intimacy between me & my employer that constitutes an invasion ... These kinds of invasions of privacy often provoke shame, feelings of indignity, helplessness, a diminished sense of self-worth, and the triggering of a host of primitive defense mechanisms." The brief submitted by Tech Guild attorney Rachel Minter also relies on the sort of less-emotional appeals that are rooted in legal precedent. Citing a case brought by the Civil Service Employees' Association against the Newburgh School District, it noted that OCB's state counterpart, the Public Employment Relations Board, had found that management had an obligation to bargain over a work rule that placed additional time-recording responsibilities on employees - in that case through the installation of a time-clock. Sees a GOP Boondoggle Tom Anderson, the vice chair of the Organization of Staff Analysts, told reporters that the city was shunning the use of the time-clock because it was simple and inexpensive. "It did not provide enough money for high-tech Republican contractors," he asserted. His suspicions were echoed by OSA chair Robert J. Croghan, who said the palmscanners "will catch Osama bin Laden if he also works for the city." More likely, he added, the palm-scanner program was being expanded to other agencies because "they want to spend money, not just on the system but on the service contracts." The mayoral aide countered with his own jaundiced view of the other side's motives, noting that the Tech Guild leaders are up for re-election next month. The union officials were joined by a couple of City Council Members who questioned the wisdom of the program. Joseph P. Addabbo Jr. of Queens, who chairs the Council's Civil Service and Labor Committee, said, "I don't see where hand-scanners is a high priority in the city, given the fiscal situation." His Brooklyn colleague, Charles Barron, who rarely misses an opportunity to
tweak Mr. Bloomberg, said, "First we want to say to the Mayor, we're giving you
the hand today." | |||||
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