LANSING – As technology continues to evolve at a dizzying speed, it has provided employees with immense amounts of flexibility and mobility when it comes to the ability to perform work outside the office. Technology also gives employers the ability to track all sorts of information on their employees through the use of Global Positioning Systems (GPS) devices installed in vehicles, laptops or through apps installed in smartphones and tablets used by employees.
The benefits of using GPS tracking are numerous and include reasons such as monitoring work hours for compliance with wage and hour laws; safety reasons including monitoring traffic laws; monitoring travel and work patterns for efficiency, productivity and performance; protections of company owned property; and using it for internal investigations. While there are many benefits for tracking employee activity, employers must be careful to use it correctly in order to avoid legal ramifications from improperly using information gathered from these systems.
Currently there is no federal statute that directly regulates an employer’s use of GPS to monitor their employees, though employers should become familiar with federal and state laws that recognize an employee’s right to some degree of privacy in the workplace. States such as California, Minnesota, Tennessee, and Texas require consent in order to use a GPS tracking device.
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