Predict City Phase-Out
Guild: Scanners' Time is Up

By RICHARD STEIER

The decision by the Department of Design and Construction to scale back use of palm-scanners as a time-keeping device will lead a citywide trend in that direction, Civil Service Technical Guild President Claude Fort predicted Feb. 13.

The Chief-Leader/Pat Arnow RAGING AGAINST THE MACHINES: With Civil Service Technical Guild President Claude Fort looking on, City Council Member Joseph P. Addabbo Jr. explains the significance of the Department of Design and Construction's decision to move away from using palm-scanners for employee time-keeping.

"We don't expect that it will be implemented in any other big agencies," he said following a press conference on the steps of City Hall.

Computer Alternative

Four days earlier, DDC had announced that the use of palm-scanners would be voluntary now that a software program has been developed allowing employees to clock in and out via their computers. Although DDC Commissioner David Burney had described this as a citywide change, a Bloomberg administration official as well as a union source stressed that the shift applied only to that agency.

Mr. Fort noted that the Department of Homeless Services recently had the palm-scanners installed but they weren't being used. Such deployment on a mandatory basis by any city agency where his members work would be "a problem" for the union, which is Local 375 of District Council 37, the Tech Guild leader said.

The union's first vice president, Jon Forster, who has been particularly vocal about the palm-scanners being an unnecessary intrusion on employee privacy, said none of its members had been asked to use the scanners that are being installed at the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

'Inaccurate, Inflexible'

City Council Member Joseph P. Addabbo Jr., who chairs that body's Civil Service and Labor Committee, said concerns about the scanners included that "they're inaccurate, they're not flexible. There are health concerns."

Mr. Forster had previously noted that because the scanners record time in quarter-hour increments, an employee who logged in at 9:08 would not be credited with starting work until 9:15, and that employees sometimes have to stay for a half-hour past the end of their shift on Fridays to ensure that their work time is properly recorded for the week.

The willingness of the Bloomberg administration to address the issues raised by the Tech Guild and implement less-intrusive time-keeping methods, Mr. Addabbo said, was "a step in the right direction. They've opened the door to communication with the workers."

He said he would convene an oversight hearing in six months to see whether any problems persist.

The palm-scanners are utilized at roughly a dozen city agencies - some of which don't employ Tech Guild members. The Law Department has used them since 1995.

Prior to DDC's announcement, the Department for the Aging had opted not to use the scanners and the Department of Finance said it would make the program voluntary.