Biometrics in the Workplace

ryth writes "The Globe and Mail reports that McDonald's Restaurants and a few other companies in Canada have introduced palm-scanning technologies for employees. Workers are now expected to 'sign' in and out using their palm prints to record the exact time of arrival and the identity of the employee. Quoted in the article Jorn Nordmann, president of S.M. Products, was blunt about why he installed a hand scanner at his fish-processing plant in Delta, B.C. 'If you want to control a whole bunch of people, it's the only way to go.' It seems that some of the most underpaid and undervalued workers are starting to be treated no better than the animals they are frying up." Except for the frying part.

selfridges london has it already

[Anonymous Coward]

I know someone who works at Selfridges in London and they have some kind of hand-scanner there for the staff to clock in and out. Doesn't sound too intrusive and stops staff clocking each other in and out and conning the system, or people who don't work there stealing a swipe card and sneaking in. Sounds like the system isn't being used properly cos they never get the overtime calculated right...

We have a swipe in/out card

[Moderation abuser]

And swipe access to some of the internal doors. If you haven't swiped in at the entrance you can't get through the internal doors, it's a kind of login system. It may well be used for time monitoring but it's main purpose is security, they also use it to produce a checklist of employees who are in the building in the event of a disaster like a fire.

Re:This is no different to a Timecard system...

[Anonymous Coward]

Although I am a Corporate McDonald's employee in Oak Brook, IL, this is not official McDonald's communication, and not my field of expertise.

Based on what I've heard in meetings and on the intranet, the whole point of this is to make sure that employees punch the clock themselves, rather than get punched in and not ever come in, or come in late.

It isn't to sack someone if they're a minute late a day or two.

You need to remember that there are several different "managers" dealing with crew in a restaurant, and the one who approves and sends in the payroll was obviously not there for all the open hours of the restaurant, so they don't really know for sure if someone worked the hours on their time card.

Also, in a business with the employee numbers of McDonald's across Canada, getting back the pay for 1 minute per week per employee if you accurately track their time is a significant figure - and it isn't pay that the employee is entitled to if they aren't there and working.

Do you people even know how most of this works?!

[jfulcher]

I am in the time and attendance field. My company sells and I setup biometric clocks along with regular clocks. The hand recognition clock we use is made by a company called recognition systems. You people are too damned paranoid. This system, nor the thumb one we use does NOT take your handprint, or thumbprint. You can really tell if you actually look at the handpunch device. The bottom that you are placing your palm on is an optical reflecting surface (just like the old optical mice). It has these little pegs on the inside and it measures the thickness of your fingers and the length. The thumb system that measures the thickness of the ridges and amount of ridges in your thumb and just record that. It does NOT store your fingerprints, nor does the prior store a handprint. You guys need to RESEARCH what you are complaining about before you complain about it. And this was a poor job of research by the journalist that wrote this article. But they have an excuse, they are uninformed liberals, and definitley not in the technical field to even understand how technical things work. Most of you guys are in the technical field.

Yawn

[Anonymous Coward]

Workers are now expected to 'sign' in and out using their palm prints to record the exact time of arrival and the identity of the employee

Having worked in both a Network Control Center, and a semi-conductor lab, I've had to pass through security controls via 'palming' for the last five years. Was only locked in the tunnel once, and found it entertaining, actually.

Re:No kidding

[Void_of_light]

I work for a small to midsized company 400-500 employees and we just installed the hand scanners to be used for payroll. So far the employees love it no problems with losing a time card all the machines are syncd so the time on one side of the plant is the same as on the other and no one can sign in a friend early or an enemy out early. Our hand scanners also do not take fingerprints. Its mearly a 3d image of the hand even if we gave that info to everyone that asked what could you do with it. This has no security issues that I can see and many advantages over a time clock system.

Not a true Palm Scanning Device.

[WinDOOR]

The device they are using doesn't scan the palm, it takes some geometric measurements and stores it in a local memory bank. The company that makes it is Locknetics or Recognition Systems which is owned by Ingersoll Rand. Here's a PDF on the device. Handkey Reader [locknetics.com] The user actually has to enter a pin number first so it locate the proper memory bank to find the geometric template. Or this can be done with a card reader also.