George Orwell Would be a Yankees Fan: Fenway Park Concessionaires Must Now Provide Fingerprints

Boston Globe columnist Steve Bailey had a very interesting piece in the Globe last week ("Friendly Fenway," July 26, 2006):

Beginning today, Aramark Corp., the giant Philadelphia concessionaire that sells that overpriced beer, is requiring its Fenway employees to be fingerprinted. ``Please stop by on Wednesday, July 26, 2006, or Thursday July 27, 2006, between 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. to pick up your paycheck and your new ID badge & to get fingerprinted," management said in a memo to employees. ``New ID badge & fingerprinting is part of the new time clock system and it is a condition of employment" . . .

All this is part of a profound corporate expansion of Big Brother in the workplace -- the so-called biometric technology revolution that uses everything from fingerprinting to retinal scans to facial recognition to keep tabs on a company's suspects, otherwise known as employees. In particular, Aramark thinks its new Fenway time-clock system will put an end to ``buddy punching" -- the practice of having a co-worker punch in for you.

As many as 800 people work the concessions on any given night at Fenway. Says one long time vendor about being fingerprinted: ``This is incredibly invasive for a pretty menial job. This is not a defense contractor. These people are making hot dogs."

Is Aramark going too far here, or is it justified in its "new policies"?

Also see: Paul Secunda of Workplace Prof Blog discussing this post (8/7/2006).
Also see: Richard Bales of Workplace Prof Blog discussing GPS Tracking of Employees (8/7/2006).

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