The long simmering dispute between the RMT transport union and the Danish transnational, ISS, over the introduction of biometric fingerprinting technology has become a pitched battle on the London Underground. In March 2013, the company gave notice to the RMT that it intended to introduce the technology for its 300 workers clocking into and out of work on its contract to clean the Underground stations. More than one year later, after organizing workers’ resistance, RMT needs to keep fighting to get this clocking in system removed.
Although ISS claimed that the RMT had agreed to this, the RMT denied it have ever done so and moved to a formal dispute, accusing the company of ‘bulldozing in’ the new system without the agreement of staff. With the company intent to introduce the technology, the RMT held a ballot for industrial action short of a strike in the summer of 2013. In the ballot, just over 100 workers voted with a 98% mandate for action
The RMT ran a ‘Thumbs Down to Fingerprinting’ campaign’ because it believed the technology was ‘a fundamental attack on civil liberties and designed to completely dehumanise the workplace while threatening jobs through automation in the drive for increased profits’.
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