Workers update

Dirt Diggers Digest - One of the drawbacks of the growing presence of electronic technology in the labor process is the ability of managers to conduct continuous surveillance of workers. Those who toil at computers have their keystrokes measured and evaluated, while others are monitored via handheld scanners or other devices. U.S. corporations think they have every right to use these techniques in the pursuit of maximum output and higher profits. As Amazon.com has just learned, that may not be so easy when it comes to their European operations. The e-commerce giant was just fined the equivalent of $35 million for employing an “excessively intrusive” system of electronic monitoring of employee performance at its warehouses in France....

It remains to be seen whether the CNIL and the other agencies enforcing the GDPR in Europe go after other employers engaged in intensive monitoring or if they treat Amazon as an outlier requiring a unique form of enforcement. For now, at least, the CNIL has shown the possibility of using privacy regulation to enhance the liberty and well-being of workers.
 

Almost four years since the coronavirus pandemic sent people to work from home in record numbers, U.S. employers are still struggling to get people back to the office. The power struggle between employees pushing for flexibility and employers trying to reel workers back has manifested in employee walkouts, corporate threats and even mass resignations. Now, new research from the Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh suggests that office mandates may not help companies’ financial performances, but they can make workers less satisfied with their jobs and work-life balance.