Passenger Trains > Metro-North employees fight being fingerprinted daily

Metro-North rail employees do not want to leave any fingerprints … and they have the backing of the Association of Commuter Rail Employees (ACRE).
RT&S
August 15, 2019
By Bill Wilson 

The New York commuter rail company wants workers to scan their fingerprints at the start and end of shifts as a way to better manage attendance and overtime pay. If the workers fail to scan they could face discipline measures or lose their job.

ACRE filed a complaint with the New York State Department of Labor stating the move is a violation of state labor law and the collective bargaining agreement between ACRE and Metro-North. Currently employees use an MTA-issued swipe card for an electronic sign in and sign out.While ACRE says the more modernized approach is a violation of labor laws, it is willing to compromise with Metro-North.

Metro-North says the fingerprint reporting would not be used for criminal background checks. What the method is used and not used for does not matter, as the ACRE argues labor laws specifically prohibit fingerprinting.

Overtime pay has surged in recent years, and in May MTA Chairman Pat Foye initiated an effort to review overtime claims and payouts. The MTA is expected to hold a meeting on Friday to go over several employee-related matters, including overtime pay.

https://www.rtands.com/news/metro-north-employees-fight-being-fingerprinted-before-and-after-shift/?utm_source&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=5639&fbclid=IwAR0SK7pUgys5ybcVqQFUaUy82mm1k6uD60Tq0S2xPvIi3K1BvkwrB1cnbQE   

If you don't like your job or how management is running it, find another one. 

Wow, biometric fingerprint readers are not the same as being "fingerprinted" and are no less identifying than any other biometric.

Let me translate their real concerns. "I'm not going to be able to comit timecard fraud anymore :-( "

I heard from someone in the Inspector General's office that one of the top job picks on Metro North was the conductor assigned to contract work gangs to talk to the dispatcher to gain/release track fouls.  Why was this job so sought after?  Because there was no sign out location.  Workers would sign out from the job site.  That means there was no regular check on how much time was actually worked.  Not surprisingly they were overtime gold mines.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/19/19 11:59 by mbrotzman.

They use their finger print to unlock their iPhone but they won't use it to clock in and out at work?
What the heck is the difference?

Just out of curiosity, I wonder what the Unions and Labor Board's attitude would be if instead of requiring scanning the fingerprint in a device in the office, it required the use of an NFC App on a device that stays always in the possession of the employee, but requires a fingerprint scan by the device to create a single use token to exchange via NFC, like say in ApplePay or GooglePay. In this case you are not giving your fingerprint to anyone. It always stays in your possession, but still uniquely identifies you to the time clock.

It all depends...

SOME bio-metric finger print devices convert the print to a numeric value matching the ridges and curves of the print and the finger print itself cannot be rebuilt from the number. The fingerprint image itself is somewhat like a photograph and is (claimed to be) deleted after the conversion. Accuracy was about 85% or so.

Other devices retain the image of the fingerprint in storage so it can be used for other unexplained purposes.

We need strong protections on retention and distribution of this very personal data to prevent mis-use or distribution. The potential for abuse is clearly there.

I worked for a company which used it on a wide scale basis to identify customers, but there was an opt-out plan, where you could gain access showing a govt issued ID card to an attendant to match your personal information if you did not trust the bio metric system. Even working in Info Tech I opted out and did not use the system.

A quick test is to ask if ALL of the top management employees are entered and maintained in the system. If the answer is no, something is suspicious.

Michael

I had to provide a finger print scan every time I logged onto systems that had client specific financial information or projections. The client was billed for my time, and they had the right to know it was me working on their documents and projections.  And, I was finger printed and background checked every 12 month for my securities licenses.

It may be jarring for folks to realize this is the way a lot of folks in the banking and finance business have worked for more than two decades. 

emd_mrs1 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> A quick test is to ask if ALL of the top
> management employees are entered and maintained in
> the system. If the answer is no, something is
> suspicious.
>
> Michael

Management employees are not paid by the hour, they get a salary.
The non-management employees are paid by the hour so they have to somehow record their start and stop times.

PHall Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> They use their finger print to unlock their iPhone
> but they won't use it to clock in and out at
> work?
> What the heck is the difference?

The difference is that there is never a need to have someone else log into and out of your phone so that you can commit timecard fraud.

While working at a very large employer 13 years ago, they changed the punch-in/punch out from 'enter your employee number on a keypad' to 'swipe your ID card' and then to 'swipe your ID card in the presence of your work area manager', all in the space of 18 months, or so.  Why?  I personally witnessed one worker in front of me enter 3 different time clock numbers, punching in for his friends.  Apparently, the 'friends' much have changed to giving their ID cards to the worker.  So, within a year, the timeclocks were relocated and all punch in/out activity had to be done with your ID in the presence of your work area manager. 

I left them in 2008 to go to CSX Intermodal.  They had just implemented a fingerprint-based timeclock replacing sign-in sheets a month or so prior to my starting there.  My co-workers were furious as they couldn't pad the overtime any more.  They tried everything to disable the device including pouring coffee on it and other tricks.  The single fingerprint device lasted about a year before it was replaced by an entire handprint device due to reliability issues.

For what it's worth, my keyless gun safe uses a fingerprint device.

As a prior poster indicated, if the workers don't like it, quit. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/20/19 08:53 by BRAtkinson.

restricted_speed Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> PHall Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > They use their finger print to unlock their
> iPhone
> > but they won't use it to clock in and out at
> > work?
> > What the heck is the difference?
>
> The difference is that there is never a need to
> have someone else log into and out of your phone
> so that you can commit timecard fraud.

But the way in which ApplePay uses fingerprint on iPhone actually ties the specific credit card transaction to the fingerprint scanned. That is similar type of per transaction authentication that would be adequate for time cards.

Facial recognition technology will make this interim step obsolete in months, at most. Even using a non-secure technology like Face Time would address the issue. Guy logs into the ID reader while he is visible on the terminal, next guy logs in as he is visible, etc.

This isn't a complex situation to resolve, and it's clear that Governor Cuomo is making it a priority for agencies of the MTA.  We've had multiple threads on overtime fraud allegations, and rebuttals. So, it's gonna get done.

Well it will be a chance for labor to show that all the allegations are untrue, and a few bad eggs no longer able to sponge off the taxpayer   

If they're committing fraud, they'll be fingerprinted anyway. Might as well get a head start.

Posted from Android

Doug Wetherhold
Macungie, PA

About 25 years ago, I met the afternoon plant electrician at the lumber mill in Foresthill, Ca.  We got to be good friends, and after a while he asked me what time our shifts changed.  I asked why, and he said well the day electrician here works afternoons in the SP's roundhouse, and I just wondered how he could leave here at 330pm and drive from Foresthill to Roseville via the American River Canyon, and get there on time?  

I told Bob the mech. dept. changes at 330p, so somebody had to be punching in for him.  What I never could figure out  was how he got his first job card, and how he got his car parked in the lot and got inside with nobody noticing about 430.

About two years later, the plant announced they would be logged out and were going to close.  They offered a fair severance, or an education package in another trade, and needless to say, he took the severance.
G

 

andersonb109 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If you don't like your job or how management is
> running it, find another one. 

You've been giving this kind of poor advice for years. I'm suspicious if you've ever held a real job before, because this isn't how it works.

Metro-North employees, or any other groups of employees can fight changes management proposes. Many times, these disputes are resolved. During the grievance process, details of the proposal emerge where the employees might come to an understanding. Sometimes, the proposals are rejected.

All railroad employees should have quit en masse when cameras (inward or outward) were being installed in the cabs, using your logic. Imagine that needless chaos from such a reactionary advice like yours. Many railheads have accepted the effectiveness of these cameras (at least the outward facing ones) over time, didn't they?

Anyway, if the job sucks or management sucks, people can also strike. In your world, ALL workplaces will eventually suck because everyone will be running away all the time, and management will have no checks and balances against bad decisions.

Labor has relatively less power than capital right now. At least in some industries. That's part of the so-called stake holder discussion.

If all of rail labor quit tomorrow, management would crack open cases of Champagne.

Posted from Android