German food chain spying on their workers, and other tales from the workplace
Posted by: Jenny Penny in Economy and business, International, WorkIn Germany, discount food chain Lidl has accused of spying on its employees, using secret cameras and private detectives. German weekly Stern
has gotten hold of protocols from the food chain which described the habits and even appearance of employees in detail.
Now, my German is a bit off at the moment, so I haven’t read the original articles. Here, however, is what Spiegel Online International reports:
Stern claims to have obtained hundreds of pages of transcripts that document the movements and conversations of employees, for example: “Wednesday, 4:45 p.m.: Although Ms. N. has not accomplished much in the food and reduced wares department, she takes her break right on time. She sits together with Ms. L.; they talk about their wages, bonuses and paid overtime. Ms. N. hopes that her pay has been transferred already because she desperately needs money for this evening (reason = ?)”.
The transcripts also get into employees’ private lives (”Her circle of friends consists mainly of junkies”) and appearances (”Ms. M. has tattoos on both lower arms”). In their tone and detail, the observation logs invite comparison to those of the Stasi, the East German secret police.
Particularly controversial is a report from the Czech Republic where, according to Stern, female employees were allegedly prohibited from going to the bathroom during work hours — unless they had their period, which they were to indicate outwardly by wearing a headband. While Lidl denies the report, it has yet to issue an injunction on a citizen’s group or a newspaper that are publicizing the case widely.
Although Lidl has not denied the existence of the transcripts, Lidl spokesperson Petra Trabert told Stern they were not intended as “employee observation but rather to detect possible misconduct.”
This is disgusting. And what does Trabert mean by saying that the transcripts were not intended as employee observation but to detect possible misconduct? Spying is spying, no matter what your intentions are. If they monitored all employees in order to pick out the “bad apples”, they still have spied on their workers. There are sure better ways to ensure good worker conduct than blanket monitoring - how about good management, an open workplace atmosphere where workers are listened to and respected, and decent pay and benefits for starters? (Yes, you may say I’m a dreamer.) One thing I learned when working in customer service was that it didn’t matter that I went out of my way to solve the customer’s problems - the guy who had taken 120 calls that day (because he lied to the customers, didn’t finish the administration properly and made a half-assed effort overall) was the one who was applauded during staff meetings and whose name was circulated in mass e-mails from the management as an inspiration for all of us. Such is the nature of the service industry. Read Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed. On (not) getting by in America. Sure, it deals with the USA, but read the Wal-Mart chapter and compare that to the news about Lidl. Also, read here.
Swedish magazine ETC online had an interesting article a whole ago on how a high production pace within the industry are making workers ill. Lean production, as it is called (also renamed management-by-stress by critical voices) was partly developed by Taichi Ohno, chief engineer at Toyota. His American workers called it the Oh No! system - each department manager was given 90 percent of the workers needed to reach the production goals. They were left on their own to figure out how to manage that, and when they did, the workforce was reduced by another 10 percent. In the Kawasaki factories, each work station has lights - a green light when everything is running smoothly, a yellow light if the worker has indicated that he needs help, and a red light if the assembly line needs to be stopped. Contrary to what you might think, the management does not want green lights everywhere, they want yellow lights. Why? Because then the workers are really making an effort. If there are green lights everywhere, that means they can cut some workers. And in the Volvo factory in Torslanda in western Sweden, the conveyor belt runs faster and faster until the computer shows that some station is above the limit. The line then stops for a while but then slowly speeds up again until a station is again unable to keep up. Bathroom breaks, breaks to catch your breath, to shift your position - all of that will affect productivity (and profit) negatively and are thus to be eliminated as much as possible.
Of course such systems will make the workers ill, mainly in musculo-skeletal disorders (back pain etc) and stress related diseases. And of course, such illnesses can easily be dismissed as not work-related, thus relieving the employer of any responsibility.
Within the service industry (call centers, customer service etc) and within the manufacturing industry, surveillance, control and measurement of workers are commonplace. But within administration and office work, it’s not as common. But Microsoft are on to something - according to the ETC article they have developed a system for office use which will, by using wireless censors in the worker’s computer, measure heart rate, blood pressure, sweat, body temperature, facial expressions and other bodily functions. According to developers, the system can be used to “send the employee the help he or she needs”. The real intent is of course to monitor the employees and pressure them to work harder. Not enough sweat, not high enough heart rate, then the help you are given are probably the “advice” to start looking for another job. Dare to complain about it to your co-workers? You better not - someone might be listening.
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