© Reuters / Alessia Pierdomenico
Myrna Arias has claimed that her boss, John Stubits, at money transfer service Intermex in Bakersfield boasted about monitoring employees' locations while they were not on the job, according to the lawsuit filed in Kern County Superior Court.
Arias, a sales executive for the company, said she was "scolded" and subsequently fired -- even though she "met all quotas during her time with Intermex -- after she uninstalled Xora, a mandatory job-management app that was applied to company phones.
"After researching the app and speaking with a trainer from Xora, Plaintiff and her co-workers asked whether Intermex would be monitoring their movements while off duty," the suit says.
"Stubits admitted that employees would be monitored while off duty and bragged that he knew how fast she was driving at specific moments ever since she installed the app on her phone. Plaintiff expressed that she had no problem with the app's GPS function during work hours, but she objected to the monitoring of her location during non-work hours and complained to Stubits that this was an invasion of her privacy. She likened the app to a prisoner's ankle bracelet and informed Stubits that his actions were illegal. Stubits replied that she should tolerate the illegal intrusion...."
The suit alleged invasion of privacy, retaliation, and unfair business practices, among other accusations.
"This intrusion would be highly offensive to a reasonable person," the lawsuit claimed.
Arias' attorney told Ars Technica that the mandatory app was intrusive in its constant monitoring.
"The app had a 'clock in/out' feature which did not stop GPS monitoring, that function remained on," Gail Glick said.
"This is the problem about which Ms. Arias complained. Management never made mention of mileage. They would tell her co-workers and her of their driving speed, roads taken, and time spent at customer locations. Her manager made it clear that he was using the program to continuously monitor her, during company as well as personal time."
Arias is seeking damages in excess of $500,000. Intermex did not immediately respond to Ars Technica for comment.
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Reader Comments
"Fairness" has nothing to do with anything. A private company should have every right to choose who it wants to hire, retain, and fire. And any employee should have every right to choose to accept or reject the terms of employment offered by a company. It's a two-way street - just like a person cannot be forced to work for some employer he does not want to work for, a private employer should not be forced to employ any particular person that it does not want.
That having been said, I completely agree that the company's behavior of spying on employees outside of their work is totally outrageous and despicable. The company is obviously a sleazy operation and no self-respecting person should ever support it by doing business with them. A company that behaves like that deserves to go out of business due to people boycotting it.
The really important thing in all this is to keep making, marketing and selling more junk.
As junk piles upon junk piles upon junk, we are liberated from our primitive, earlier selves and become one with our piles of garbage, our toxic consumer drivel and waste.
This is the meaning of life--to make everyone and everything sick.
Now get back to work!!
ned, out
Just think how much this woman can buy--if she wins her case.
Truly, it will be a milestone victory.
This is why I will never accept a company supplied mobile phone. What she might have done is leave her mobile phone "at work" when she left for the day. However, none of this excuses the egregious behavior of her employer/boss.