Charlie_Boy

Can swipe cards that let you in to a building be used by management to keep an eye on employees time keeping without informing employees first?

Reffro

Yes

lpski1

Yep, we do it here.

Charlie_Boy

Surely somewhere the data protection act comes into play.

milo

i hope they dont do that where i work

lpski1

the data protection act that lets your private email no longer be private !! and can be read and opened.

The building management are well within their right to see who is entering the building and offices throughout the day/night. If your manager wants to see if you done the overtime you said you was doing, he can also check that.

ProperCharlie

AFAIK the data protection act does not prevent your employer from collecting information on when you arrive and leave work! Do you not think that is a fairly reasonable thing to want to know?

MATTeL

It depends if the swipe card system is actually linked to a system that recognises the person entering the building and then logs the time.

It can be done (Chronos being one such system), other system are just dumb entry systems.

The Data Protection Act is designed to ensure that personal information is controlled so only the people that shuld have access to the information have and those that don't need it don't.

The DPA also gives you the right to see all the information and documents that uniquely identify you as long as they are stored in a manner that is filed.

The new DPA (now fully in force) not only covers computer systems (as it was in the original act) but also covers paper now.

Scooby96

Yep - I used entry/exit times to sack someone. Data protection does not come into it as you're not recording personal information about the person, you are just recording when and where card #x is being used. It also being an 'offence' to let anyone else use your card this gets round the issue of someone trying to squirm out of it by saying someone else used my card then and there.

Big brother is watching!!

beemerboy

big brother can go **** himself.

just say the door was already open!!!(or someone else let you in)

whats the matter with you lot? gone soft of something?

its a tough world, get tough with it!!!

BB

Charlie_Boy

oh well, looks like they can F%ck us anyway they want.

ProperCharlie

/crying for all the poor loves who can't skive off work anymore...

maybe mummy'll write you a sick note?

Scooby96

Well this guy took the **** bigtime - saying he was in at 7.30, half hour lunches and staying until 6, 7 or 8. Was hard to keep track of the guy as I was out and about alot and working long hours from home.

Turns out he wasnt getting in until just before 9, had well over an hours lunch (sometimes 2, the longest I saw was 3.5 hrs!!) and left at 5.05!

Any ****** who takes the **** that much deserves all he / she gets.

[Edited by Scooby96 - 9/23/2003 10:49:10 AM]

Tiggs

i hear that a boss can actual ask to see any work you say you have produced....i've even heard they can issue you with written regulations on how to do your job..a contract?????? is this true, big brother gone mad if you ask me.

ProperCharlie

the last place I worked had a swip card system - it was totally ineffective as everyone who wanted to skive just swiped out and filled in a temporary absence form saying they were going off to look at a site somewhere. I used to swip in at 7.30 am and spend the next 1.5 hours reading the paper and drinking coffee, as no-one else could be bothered to turn up for work at that time. it was great as I could then take a day off on flexi with all the extra hours i'd "worked"

dunno where my "e"s went

[Edited by ProperCharlie - 9/23/2003 10:56:16 AM]

Buzzer

We had a swipe system at our old place. As stated no names were installed on the system but issue numbers relating to the person it was issued to was.

We thought that this was an excuse to monitor access/egress times so we just swapped our cards between ourselves, messing up the issue number/name sequence. We also made sure that in the morning and in the evening, a few of us went out together using just the one card.

Nothing ever happened could be just paranoia on your part

MATTeL

Not exactly true, anything written or recorded about a person is covered by the DPA. Even if you comment about them in an e-mail it has to be made available to the person if they request the information.

Logging someones time would been that there is a process in place to identify the person and therefore that information would also be covered by the act.

The "offence" of letting someone else use the card is not covered by an act but more likely the Contract of Employment. It is the samething with manual clocking in and out and getting someone to clock in or out for you. This would usually be a disciplinary offence (likely to be a gross misconduct) and as such could be used to dismiss someone.

PhilsGT4

Time & Attendance logging could also be used for health & saftey purposes - Emplyers need to know who is on the premises at any time ie. in case of fire...

This was the excuse we gave at my old job when we installed a swipe entry/exit system.

MATTeL

The is also the Working Time Directive as well... unless of course in your contract you opted out or made the decision independent of your contract of employment to opt out.

paulr

A swipe card system was introduced where i work 3 months ago one the excuse of logging who was on site for health and safety.

Then they started complaining about a few guys leaving early.

MATTeL

H&S is an important issue, I remember being escorted and banned from site for having to many hours worked in a specific period.

Basically worked to many hours and got two days off as a result!

If you have specific hours in your contract of employment then surely it is not unresnoble for the employer to expect you to be present for those hours. After all you are paid for the hours you are supposed to be working.

JackClark

If you don't swipe in or out with our system you get a ten minute lock in/out. Stops tailgating.

P1Fanatic

I am friends with our security guard and the amount of stuff our system logs is mad. He has a screen that shows exactly where you went and and at what time, your pin number brings up your name every time you open a door and it records how long you were in a section of the building.

Simon.