©
Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2005
Taken from the news section in
www.onestopenglish.com
Firms tag workers to improve
efficiency
David Hencke
Some British supermarket companies are
asking their warehouse
workers to wear small
computers, called “electronic tags”. The
companies say that these tags will help them
to reduce costs and increase the efficient
delivery of goods and food to stores. The
system uses American satellite and radio
technology to send messages to the workers.
In a report Professor Blakemore from the
University of Durham said that the use of
these tags was making some workplaces more
like prisons.
The technology arrived from the US at the
start of
the year and more and more
companies are using it. Almost 10,000
employees are using it to supply goods to
well-known British supermarkets. Trade
unionists representing workers are worried
that companies could use the technology to
check what workers are doing. They are
asking for special measures to make sure that
this does not happen.
Under the system workers have to wear
computers on their wrists,
arms and fingers,
and sometimes they have to wear a special
vest containing a computer that instructs them
where to go to collect goods from warehouse
shelves. The system also allows the store to
send orders to workers’ computers. The
computer can also check if workers are taking
breaks without permission and can calculate
the shortest time a
worker needs to complete a
job.
Britain already has more street security
cameras than any other country in the world,
and some experts are worried that this new
system could make Britain the most watched
country in the world.
In his report Professor Blakemore said there
was a danger that computers were controlling
humans rather than humans using computers.
Some people are also worried that the new
technology could
cause industrial injuries
because workers had to make the same
movements with their arms and wrists again
and again.
But the companies say that the system makes
the delivery of food more efficient. It also
removes waste, reduces theft and can reorder
goods more quickly. A spokeswoman for a
supermarket said that the company was not
using the technology to
check what its staff
were doing. She said it was making
employees’ work easier and reducing the need
for paper.
But a trade union spokesman, Paul Campbell,
said: “We are getting reports of people
leaving their jobs after just a few days and in
some cases just a few hours. They are all
saying they don’t
like the job because they
have no input. They are just following a
computer’s instructions”.
American companies are working on new
computer equipment that can check what
workers are doing. One system will check
how many times secretaries hit the keys on
their word processors,
and another will check
how much work workers are doing.
The Guardian Weekly
10/06/2005, page 9
