Supermarket chain Tesco has been accused of using electronic armbands to monitor how hard its warehouse staff and forklift drivers are working. A former employee at an Irish branch of Tesco said that while the armbands digitise the stock admin system and remove the need for staff to carry pens and paper, it also allows management to monitor how quickly tasks are performed, with unscheduled toilet breaks particularly frowned upon. Workers not deemed to be working hard enough would be given low scores and called up before management. “The guys who made the scores were sweating buckets and throwing stuff around the place,” the whistleblower told the Independent. A Tesco spokesman said: “Arm-mounted terminals are a working aid and at no time are they used to monitor colleagues while on their breaks.”
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