Don't Let Electronic Monitoring of Employees Hand an Issue to Unions

Abstract

Most union campaigns begin with morale problems. Issues concerning fair treatment, most union organizers agree, are what initially motivate most workers to seek out a union. One practice that has been known to create impressions of unfairness is electronic monitoring of production and employee work tasks. Surveillance cameras can be easily acquired through any online retailer and installed simply. IT servers can easily be scoured for e‐mails and internet activity. Computerized time‐keeping systems track to the minute “on” and “off” time. Automatic toll records and GPS devices continuously record where employees are. Our world makes it easy for an employer to be “big brother.” Not surprisingly, many employees resent their employer's perceived mistrust or intrusions into their privacy.