NYC union leaves their mark; but no print

At the New York City Department of Design and Construction in Long Island City, architects, engineers and project managers slipped into surgical gloves in protest to a new time and attendance system recently proposed in the City, named CityTime.

The biometric palm scanners, already successfully employed at the Conflicts of Interests board, is designed to monitor the attendance of employees - more specifically, to eliminate buddy-punching.

According to Local 365 president Claude Fort, the biometric scanners are “invasive” and “offensive”. Trusting staff with $20 million contracts suggests staff are more than capable than timing-in accurately. There are also fears about the final destination of the information collected.

The question is, can this protest be justified? I understand the concerns over the use of any collected information, but how can staff create uproar about clocking in when the huge loss of productivity in firms omitting biometric time and attendance monitoring is so well-publicised?