One would think that an employer has every right to know if employees are doing the work for which they have been hired. The Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) in New York, however, thinks otherwise.
Nassau County on Long Island said it would like to monitor its public employees via GPS devices in their cell phones and cars. The GPS phones would permit the County to record the arrival and departure times of its employees at inspection sites, while also providing precise mileage reports, which are important especially because of the high cost of gasoline.
The CSEA objected. The union claimed that, before the GPS devices could be installed, the county must ask the union for permission, through collective bargaining and negotiations.
Now the State Public Employees Relations Board has ruled that the County can, indeed, install GPS devises to monitor its employees. The rejection of the challenges posed by the Civil Service Employees Association is certainly justified.
The objections of the CSEA were absurd and just another example of organized labor attempting to block the legitimate actions of employers who have every right to expect the highest levels of productivity from their employees.
