Employees who are often on the road may think they have more
freedom than the average worker. The decreasing costs of global positioning
technologies, both in company vehicles and cellphones, may be changing that, giving
employers new ways to keep track of their employees. As a result, concerns over
employee privacy are rising.
-Legality of GPS
Tracking
GPS tracking devices have been deemed by the courts to be
reasonable. The rationale goes like this: Workplace surveillance is completely
legal and common. If the workplace is the car or other location, shouldn’t
bosses have a way to keep tabs on their employees from afar? However, there are
some limits to GPS tracking by employers.
-Drawing Line Between
Work and Personal Time
The key to keeping tabs of employees using GPS is to do so
only when the employees are supposed to be working. For instance, it’s OK to
ask an employee why his cellphone showed that he was at a bar when he was
supposed to be delivering documents to a client at his place of work. It’s not
OK to track an employee’s whereabouts after work hours if he takes his
GPS-enabled device home with him regularly. There should be a legitimate
business reason for tracking employees’ movements using GPS technology.
-Company Policies
If your company has a policy on electronic surveillance,
tracking of employees via GPS should be in keeping with that policy.
Additionally, such a policy should remind workers that GPS-equipped technology
provided by the company belongs to the company and are only to be used for
work. At the same time, make it clear that the company reserves the right to
use GPS in devices provided to workers to keep tabs on them during work hours.
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