A former Tesco worker says the armbands are used to time every task. If an employee doesn’t work fast enough, they get a bad score and can be hauled in front of management.
Tesco admits it is using electronic armbands on warehouse workers and drivers but claims this is just to cut down on paperwork. But the real story is that these armbands are like Big Brother in the workplace, watching every move a person makes.
Tesco isn't known for doing business ethically or treating people well. But is this going too far?
If you think it is wrong, you might like to sign the petition here.
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I thought this was quite amusing...
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Well that's what happens when you "reform" trade union laws and have a large pool of desparate unemployed. However I'll see your nasty Tesco and raise you Atos. (Poker joke). Pride's purge blog reporting that a woman with mental age of 3 found fit to work,
ReplyDeletehttp://tompride.wordpress.com/2013/04/11/atos-tell-woman-with-mental-age-of-3-yrs-to-get-a-job-not-satire-please-share/
And they wonder why I'm a yes voter.
PP: I think Pride's Perge must have updated:
DeleteMeena’s family are asking for their privacy to be respected. A genuine misunderstanding has been made, no thanks to the aggressively worded letter the family received. They will be pursuing the matter with the appropriate bodies and ask you all to respect their wishes.
Thank you.
Suffice to say than... how low can they go?
Don't you just love the legacy of THATCHER!
ReplyDeleteSorry Tris I know I mentioned THAT name so early on but it's true, isn't it?
I mean without her there would not be any of this whole ATOS,Bedroom tax, work fare, rob the poor to pay the rich antics of Westminster would there?
TESCO are just another level of the old Thatcherism approach to the Labour induced work fare programme. I just love their argument that the electronic armbands "cuts down on paperwork" though. Seems that they are adopting the unionists "too wee too poor too stupid" approach to we Scots and using it on their employees!
PP I wish I could say that I'm amazed at this but sadly I'm not. This kind of thing is all too common from ATOS. I remember reading recently about a QUADRIPLEGIC who they declared fit for work. There again they ARE working to TARGETS aren't they?
They deny it but I have read articles from people who have confirmed DWP and ATOS both are working to targets to et people OFF benefits and back to work. Hell I'm just waiting for the announcement any day now that Thatcher has been declared "fit for work!"
The MORE these sort of stories hit the news and blog sites then I believe the MORE people will question WHY they should vote NO, these people will then pass through the DON'T KNOW section of voters and eventually arrive at their FINAL destination the YES camp! :-)
Hi Arbroath
DeleteExcellent post but I have to disagree with you in one part. There are targets to get people off benefits but they really don't give a toss whether they end up in work or not. Yes it would increase income tax receipts if they were but they know fine well that there aren't sufficient jobs for everyone who needs one. Indeed many jobs are so poorly paid that folk require in work benefits to top up their income.
Thatcher never was fit for work... not as a prime minister anyway.
DeleteThe deal about getting people of sick benefits is that over a time they cost more. Sickness benefits start off at the same level as JSA, but after 6 months they increase and after 12 months they increase again. And the increases are discounted in such other benefits as housing benefits.
If they take someone off Incapacity Benefit and put them on JSA, they could save around £35 a week, maybe more.
That the sick person will never get a job is of secondary importance. They have saved £35 a week. Nothing of course, but I suppose if you do it with a million that's £35 million a week.
If the sick person then dies, the savings are massive "going forward", because they save on NHS and Pensions too.
A win win situation for them. A lose lose lose situation for the sick person.
Hi Panda Paws, I agree with you concerning the targets that DWP and ATOS have, despite their denials. I think it is patently obvious that neither organisation gives a damn about the health of their "clients" just so long as they get them OFF Disability, JSA or whatever other benefits their "clients" are on.
DeleteAt the end of the day ATOS get paid to find people fit to work when clearly they are not, knowing full well the people will appeal. Then you realise that ATOS get paid for the initial "interview" and then get paid AGAIN for the appeal!
Funnily enough...
ReplyDeleteMy mother's carers now have to phone a number when they arrive at a clients home and phone again when they leave. As with Tesco, the excuse is, for safety and reducing paperwork. Of course it's not, these carers have zero hour contracts, if they don't work they don't get paid and they don't from one hour to the next if they will be working so can't supplement their wages.
Its a cynical money saving ploy by the care providing company so they don't have to pay staff if (for example) they turn up at a clients house and they're not in for one reason or another. When they bid for contracts with local councils, they can quote ridiculously low costs to the detriment of staff, not profits.
There are so many ways our society is unfair, its like death by a million cuts sometimes and it sickens me, needless to say, my mum has opted out and has told the care company she doesn't want this happening, its not even practical, its just some management consultant's wet dream.
Unbelievable Pa.
DeleteZero hour contracts play havoc with people's lives. I have a friend who got a job with one of the cinemas. He never knew whether he would have 40 hours or 30, 20 or 10 or nil. One week he actually only had 4 hours.
How do you live on four hours at minimum wage. There was a small tax rebate though.
Good for your mum. we need to stand up to these people. No wonder people are ill with stress.... more more more for less less less. Sickening, vile country. Let's get out of it.
Brilliant comments guys... Will reply to them later. Rushed off my feet just now...
ReplyDeletePut your armband in the blender then.
DeleteHa ha CH... It seems like a good idea. Cost them a fortune in armbands...
ReplyDeleteCame across this poster and it made me wonder where that 'fanatical' Cyberbrit Dean is hiding.
ReplyDeleteThat is a good one... and a view I hadn't actually considered before. ...but I shall now.
DeleteTotally agree with that, who was it that said an indebted society is a subservient society?
DeleteI must admit I try to avoid using Tesco when I can but it's difficult given the virtual monopoly they have in Scotland and the fact the other supermarkets can be expensive. This is disgusting though, Tesco will love it when the minimum wage is abolished or left at this level for the next 10 years.
ReplyDeleteBruce
I find ASDA is cheaper than Tesco and the staff are better. But where I can I buy from the German supermarkets. They have excellent stuff and sometimes i wonder at how little a trolly of shopping has cost.
DeleteThey are getting busier and busier too as people realise that there are other makes than Heinz that are just as good...
Presumably, the workers are happy to accept their hourly pay-rate for 100% of their shift time.
ReplyDeleteI think the problem is, 100% of their pay rate doesn't enable them to make ends meet in the UK as it is today. Sticking an armband on them is another insult on top of a niggardly hourly rate.
DeleteWhen you mix in the fact Tesco have been using workfare to further increase their profits at the expense of its workforce...
Its not looking good; over-taxed, under-represented, beholden to the state if you want a university education, held hostage by the big banks and tracked at work.
Meh.
Anyone doing a reasonable calculation will realise that people doing a physical job require a bit of recovery time Joe Public. Different people, different days, different recovery times, so even if it's built in it won't be accurate.
ReplyDeleteTesco staff are, in my experience, the least agreeable out of the supermarket chains, one of the reasons I avoid them like the plague. I don't think this will help the atmosphere in any way
I can't help wondering if this article is a bit of a red herring.
ReplyDeleteFor years, workers in many sectors of manufacturing have had their pay calculated via piece-work.
All HGV drivers are monitored via Tachographs.
Most on-line grocery-suppliers and many household appliance repairers, car breakdown services, couriers etc use vehicle tracking devices, so they can better-predict delivery times for their customers.
If Tesco (or any other supermarket) " isn't known for doing business ethically or treating people well", then it wouldn't survive in business.
It can't be that bad, as it has more customers than any other supermarket.
Not much difference between arm bands and identity chips!
ReplyDeleteNo, the same thing. managers don't seem capable of managing people any more, except by some sort of whip. makes for very dissatisfied staff, which reflects on the attitude they take to other people.
DeleteSad.
Yes, can't understand why people go to is so much JP.
ReplyDeleteIt is more expensive that Asda, or Morrisons (though less so than the Co-op, Sainsbury and Waitrose)
At least locally the staff are quite simply appalling. Rude ignorant disinterested, compared with Asda and Morrisons and of course Lidl and Aldi, which get busier by the week... You now can't get a parking space in their car parks and they are taking on extra staff.
I'm concerned that you think that you could only run a business if you didn't treat people well or conduct an ethical business policy. I don't say you are wrong, but I do say it is a sad reflection on our society.
Chatr, cheat, cheat?