Big Meat Companies Want To Use Smartwatches To Track Workers' Every Move (vice.com) 16
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: Two of the largest meat companies in the U.S. have invested in a smartwatch app that allows managers to track and monitor worker's movements. According to a report by Investigate Midwest, a non-profit newsroom covering the agri-business industry, JBS and Tyson Foods have backed Mentore, a start-up that claims it uses surveillance data and AI to improve worker productivity and reduce workplace injuries. Once paired with a compatible smartwatch, Mentore's application uses sensors to collect data on the force, rotation, speed, and directional movement of a worker's arm as they repeatedly complete the same task. The company's algorithm then analyzes that data to determine if those movements are safe and alerts the individual if they are found to be using too much speed or force. According to the report and Mentore's co-founder, Apoorva Kiran, the watch can also detect dehydration.
This raw watch data is then converted to real-time metrics that are made visible to supervisors on a dashboard. At the moment, it seems that Mentore plans to combat uncertainty and issues about transparency about the app by allowing workers to access their current and historical "injury risk" scores, but it's unclear whether they can do anything to challenge the real-time metrics on the watch itself. The app can also differentiate between "intense active motion" and "mild active motion." According to Mentore's site, this kind of data can "improve productivity, turnover, and safety at scale in real-time." [...] According to Investigate Midwest, the system has already been installed on about 10,000 devices across five industries in four different countries, including the U.S, Canada, Chile, and Japan. The move mirrors similar controversial tracking practices that many other companies, including Amazon, have tried to implement over the years in a bid to increase worker productivity. "Besides the tracking and the invasion of somebody's privacy, there is this real safety and health issue," Mark Lauritsen, an international vice president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) and head of the union's meatpacking division, told Motherboard. He says that requiring workers to wear a watch or any other jewelry would be in violation of health and safety policies, opening them up to workplace injury and potentially leading to contamination of the product.
"We're not going to allow their need to have more money and more productivity endanger people's lives and limbs just so they can make an extra dollar," Lauritsen said. "It's just not gonna happen."
This raw watch data is then converted to real-time metrics that are made visible to supervisors on a dashboard. At the moment, it seems that Mentore plans to combat uncertainty and issues about transparency about the app by allowing workers to access their current and historical "injury risk" scores, but it's unclear whether they can do anything to challenge the real-time metrics on the watch itself. The app can also differentiate between "intense active motion" and "mild active motion." According to Mentore's site, this kind of data can "improve productivity, turnover, and safety at scale in real-time." [...] According to Investigate Midwest, the system has already been installed on about 10,000 devices across five industries in four different countries, including the U.S, Canada, Chile, and Japan. The move mirrors similar controversial tracking practices that many other companies, including Amazon, have tried to implement over the years in a bid to increase worker productivity. "Besides the tracking and the invasion of somebody's privacy, there is this real safety and health issue," Mark Lauritsen, an international vice president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) and head of the union's meatpacking division, told Motherboard. He says that requiring workers to wear a watch or any other jewelry would be in violation of health and safety policies, opening them up to workplace injury and potentially leading to contamination of the product.
"We're not going to allow their need to have more money and more productivity endanger people's lives and limbs just so they can make an extra dollar," Lauritsen said. "It's just not gonna happen."
the health inspector may put an stop to it / very (Score:2)
the health inspector may put an stop to it / very state to state on if it will get an ok.
hipaa violations with storeing that data? (Score:2)
hipaa violations with storeing that data?
Re: (Score:2)
People throw that around a lot. It doesn't apply. They aren't a health care provider, a provider of health plans, a healthcare clearing house, or a business associate dealing with one of the above.
Even if it were, it'd be pretty tricky to argue telemetry data related to stop-and-go motion on the watch constitutes "protected health care data".
Big Meat Watches Worker's Every Move (Score:2)
I saw a video about that once.
If they put one on each wrist, maybe they can use them to warn workers when they're about to remove a coworker's appendage through proximity alerts. That could really cut costs, and help keep things... cool.
Thanks, don't forget to tip the veal.
I've got bad news for them (Score:2)
If I'm doing a physically demanding job, I'm going to be accidentally breaking/submerging a lot of smart watches.
Which wrist? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Plus the next time E. coli breaks out because some undocumented meat packer failed to wash after a number 2 The Great And The Good will demand tracking and video on everything. Because one life saved is worth it, right?
Re: (Score:2)
If only there were a way to prevent American meat processors from hiring "undocumented" immigrants in the first place . . .
Jewelry / clothing can be a safety issue. (Score:2)
He says that requiring workers to wear a watch or any other jewelry would be in violation of health and safety policies,
Personally, I remember working in a restaurant kitchens when I was younger and having to be careful about wearing rings and/or loose clothing around certain equipment. Also, I had a manager when I worked for Unisys at NASA LaRC *way* back in the mid 80's that was missing part of his left ring finger. He said he lost it when his wedding ring got caught on a basketball hoop -- he went up, his ring and finger didn't. Ouch.
Simple solution (Score:2)
just checking (Score:2)
they really just want to check to see how often you wipe or shake after using the restroom - bunch of perverts.