PAT -- please obscure email address. You can show my name.
On Sun, 16 Jul 2006 23:29:34 -0400, Monty Solomon posted:
20 inspectors suspended over GPS
> Public safety chief metes out discipline
> By Andrea Estes, Globe Staff
> The Massachusetts public safety commissioner yesterday suspended 20
> state building and engineering inspectors for refusing to accept
> cellphones equipped with global positioning systems.
> Only two inspectors accepted the phones; another two were out on
> vacation when Commissioner Thomas Gatzunis tried to distribute the
> phones, which supervisors want to use to keep track of the inspectors
> during the work day.
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While I dislike the idea of being tracked, if the employer provides the phone and is paying for you to be working, they generally have the right to know where you are and what you are doing. The article does mention that the phone would not have to be turned on during breaks and lunch (and I assume before/after work).
Of course, how long before the phones are dropped in a sewer pit ("oops, sorry, it fell off my belt as I was climbing down" (or "slipped the last 2 rungs of the ladder"))? Or the battery dies on a regular basis? The job may require the person to carry the phone and turn it on but I bet the contract does not require the employees to charge the phones at home ...
- David