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November 5, 2019 02:40 pm

Warehouses Are Tracking Workers' Every Muscle Movement

Unions and researchers who study workplace surveillance worry that employers who begin gathering data on workers for whatever reason will be unable to resist using it against them. From a report: Productivity tracking is already widespread throughout the industry -- and workers can be fired or punished if their performance dips. The opacity of data-analysis tools can make it difficult for workers to fully understand how much employers can see. StrongArm, a company that makes such devices, says it has about 30 clients, including Heineken NV and Toyota Motor, and is also establishing relationships with insurance companies interested in ways to reduce workers compensation costs. Walmart says it's testing StrongArm in eight distribution centers and adds it has no plans to use them in stores. StrongArm says about 15,000 workers have worn its devices, and most of them use it daily. The Brooklyn, New York-based startup expects to have 35,000 daily active users by the end of next year. StrongArm acknowledges that concerns about workplace surveillance surround its work, but the company says its products are designed solely to improve safety and cites a recent study it commissioned that found users wearing them suffered 20% to 50% fewer injuries. It says it's not tracking individual productivity and that its products aren't used to punish individual workers or to contest workers compensation claims. But ergonomic tracking isn't happening in isolation.

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