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Hi I am a 23 year employee with my company,with a spotless record. My company has just implemented the Kronos fingerprint system. I am not comfortable with this and i have told them so.I do not work with children or the F.B.I or the C.I.A. I am not a criminal either.My company told me I do not have a choice! I have to do this. I disagree. Is this not America! I am a union shop, but my union is really not a good one and I believe they have sold us out. I am a dept. manager for a supermarket, I work around chop meat and cereal. this enviroment is not the one that warrents fingerprints! I am also afraid of retaliation for speaking my concerns about this subject that no one will talk about. can you help? I would be truly grateful. thank you
Optional Information: Country relating to Question: United StatesState (if USA): New YorkWhat have you tried so far?: talking to union, and upper management
Thank you for your question today, I look forward to assisting you. I bring nearly 20 years of legal experience in various disciplines.Unfortunately, at this time, there has been no ruling making it illegal to require finger print reading devices for the workplace.They get around any privacy concerns by not using that finger print information to compare it against any sort of national database. They simply keep it internally for internal identification of employees. Unless and until some statute makes this sort of requirement illegal, it is going to be legal. If your union is not arguing that this is a violation of your current collective bargaining agreement, then you'll either have to sue by yourself in state court claiming that this is a violation of that agreement or you'll have to accept it as a requirement of employment.
Experience: Lawyer and legal specialist.
what do you mean by sue by yourself?
If you are in a union and that union works with the employer, that means that you are under a collective bargaining agreement.That agreement is really just a contract of employment with you personally, along with others. It's just a "collective" employment contract, negotiated for many rather than each on your own.You still have individual ability to try and enforce that contract. It is impossible for me to know the provisions of your collective agreement, so that is going to be for you to pursue with a local attorney. That said, if you have any recourse at all here, it is going to be contained in that collective agreement.
I Still believe this is wrong because we were not informed nor were we told before hand. If I were hired knowing this were the case that would be different you seem uninterested and dismissive.Sorry to bother you. I will move on to someone who can help, thanks for your trouble
I'm sorry that you feel that I'm disinterested or dismissive. I assure you that I'm not.I sue employers for a living. If this were illegal in any way, I'd know about it because it's how I make my living. Even if I weren't interested in helping you personally (though I am), I would have done research on this issue anyway. This is because so many companies are making these changes now. This is becoming a very pervasive practice.The only reason you have any argument to make here at all is your union contract. If you were an "at will" employee, unfortunately my answer would have to have been "they can do it and if you don't like it, quit. That's your legal option."You at least have the ability to review your collective bargaining agreement to determine if this is a step away from those provisions. That is more than most American's have at their disposal when it comes to this new requirement that is being placed on employees.
thank you for your information. my union might be the one who has to be sued or looked at more carefully. Twenty years ago, my company back then posted all employees vacation time, sick time, personal time ect.. on a bulletin board complete with social security numbers birth dates ect.. It bothered me and I told my boss. He did nothining but say I was paranoid and what would anybody want with my social security number.Flash foward 15 years later...... Identity theft! It felt right then. I knew it! this feels the same way. Thanks for all you could do,
You can certainly file an NLRB claim against the union for failure to properly represent you in a dispute with the employer, but that is only effective where you can show that the employer is actually in violation of a provision of the collective bargaining agreement and the union just let them do it.So again, it is going to come down to that collective bargaining agreement.Take care.