A Metallic Vampire Stalking the Earth!
School district officials in Columbus, Ohio, were jazzed when they installed the new $1.7 million Kronos computer system to track workers’ attendance. The idea was that all employees, from the superintendent on down, would have to swipe a card through a reader as they entered and exited their workplace. The district computers would record the amount of time each employee spent on the job, much like the old factory punch cards and clock.
There was only one problem. The use of the system is considered to be a change in working conditions according to the collective bargaining agreement. Since the district never negotiated Kronos with the Columbus Education Association, district employees simply refused to use it. Three years in, only about 15% of the Columbus workforce uses a time card.
Rhonda Johnson, president of the Columbus Education Association, said the district never formally approached the union about the Kronos system. She opposes the idea.
“We’re professional, and we’re expected to be on the job 7 1/2 hours a day,” Johnson said. “We don’t swipe in and out.”
EIA has learned that CEA produced a video warning members about the threat of Kronos, to be broadcast should the district try to impose it on employees. Spies within the union smuggled the video out of Columbus, and I post it here for you.
July 22nd, 2010 at 10:33
Good for the union. Making non-hourly employees punch a clock seems silly.
July 22nd, 2010 at 11:03
7.5 hours a day. that’s rough.
July 23rd, 2010 at 03:33
I’m a teacher. I’ve been in CCS for years. I’ve got to correct you Mike– I have never, ever refused to Kronos. In order to refuse to use it, I would have to have been told to use it. I was never told to use it.
I’m a professional. I don’t punch in. Doctors don’t. Lawyers don’t. (Though they do keep track of their billable hours, but I would venture to guess they don’t punch in and out.)
July 23rd, 2010 at 14:10
[...] Is requiring school personnel to swipe in and out of the building a change in working conditions tha…(Intercepts) [...]
July 26th, 2010 at 17:29
If the teachers really did ‘punch in’ all the hours they actually spent at school, and could ‘punch in’ all the hours they spend at home working on schoolwork, that could be a fascinating wake-up call for community and school board members. Really? Teachers work more than 7 1/2 hours a day for only 180 days?