As Metro Government began the transition to recording time and attendance with the Kronos timekeeping system, workers wondered why they were being asked to give their thumbprints to clock in and out. After all, there were already several other useful methods for clocking in including time cards, ID badges, using a computer, or by being counted in a roll call or by a supervisor signing them in.

A Union committee, which included the Local’s attorney and organizer as well as the Metro Chief Steward and a Bargaining Committee member, met with HR officials to discuss the situation and submitted a list of questions about the Kronos system, personal privacy, liability issues, and why the need for fingerprinting non-public safety employees was necessary when there were already effective timekeeping methods that would work.

A week later, Metro HR announced that they would immediately stop gathering biometric data on employees and that all fingerprint data that had been collected so far would be destroyed.

“I am so glad that Metro worked with us on this,” said Julie Burns, a librarian at the Nashville Public Library who also serves on the Union’s bargaining committee. “This was causing a lot of stress for some of my co-workers, especially when there was never a need for people to have to do this just to clock in and out of work.”

Kronos will still be a part of Metro’s system, but there will be no more fingerprinting involved.