Flight attendants at American Airlines have accused the carrier of potentially violating California’s privacy rights laws over a controversial new performance tracking app, which was introduced without warning in April, but which had been secretly collecting data for up to a year before flight attendants were made aware of its existence.
The app is called ‘Me@Work,’ and it assigns flight attendants an aggregate score based on a wide array of performance metrics, including customer satisfaction, attendance, credit card sales, lateness, and how often crew members use their company iPhones.
Neither flight attendants nor their union, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APPA), had any idea that American Airlines was monitoring their performance quite so closely, until they were given access to Me@Work and immediately saw the score they had been assigned based on months of data collection.
Much to the dismay of APFA, the app was introduced without any involvement from the union. In fact, APFA only found out about the app’s existence at the same time as flight attendants.
For now, the app isn’t being used to actively manage flight attendants in the sense that a bad score could lead to disciplinary action. Instead, the airline says flight attendants should use the app to monitor their own performance compared to their peers.
So far, American Airlines has rejected grievances filed by APFA at an airport base level, but the union now claims the app could be breaching the California Consumer Privacy Act as the app doesn’t provide any data on how the scores were reached or how to appeal incorrect data.
“Under the law, workers have the right to know when employers are monitoring them, what information is being collected, and how that information is being used,” the union noted in an internal memo.
“Employees must also have access to their personal data and the ability to request that inaccurate information be corrected or deleted.”
The memo added: “The reality is that me@work demonstrates American Airlines management has been compiling data on individual Flight Attendants without providing us the opportunity to request corrections or deletion when appropriate, view the specific data collected, verify its accuracy, or challenge incorrect or misleading information.”
American Airlines isn’t unique in the aviation industry in developing performance tracking scores like Me@Work, and similar systems have existed at other international carriers for many years.
Just like at American Airlines, though, flight attendants have raised objections to how data is collated and used in these tools.
The most common complaint is how customer satisfaction scores are used to rate flight attendants, given that crew members have little sway on how a coworker could act on their flight, leading to bad scores for all the crew.
“The me@work app—and the philosophy behind it—is deeply flawed in many respects. Most concerning is that Flight Attendants are assigned scores based on data we cannot independently review, verify, or challenge,” APFA said on Tuesday.
“Transparency, accuracy, and accountability should accompany any system used to evaluate employees.”
Theorizing that this could be used as a performance tracker leading to termination isn’t out of the question. Given enough time, a company and their lawyers could figure out ways to skirt discrimination laws to thin out a costly workforce.
Example theory:
Limiting the amount of employees at top out pay.
Limiting the amount of employees reaching top out pay.
Limiting the amount of employees continuing employment, years after top out pay.
Airlines serve investors.
Investors demand returns.
CEOs will always get exorbitant raises. And the bar is raised again for the next a**hole with a corner office who wants such a raise.
Employees demand raises as well.
So. Which work group is the easiest, long term, to weasel out of having a long term career and save money?
The department that has the most staff.
Those numbers can make a fast change in the dynamic of capital.
Incorporate a system that lets “us” know which ones are underperforming and hurting our top end.
Utilize that to build a case/system where letting such employees go without legal issues can be made on obscure policies that are normally swept under the rug. But are clean breaks
Businesses have not been for employees for decades now. Every a**hole takes theirs public. Then, the rest is history.
People make money.
More people get screwed and become a series of digits on paper.
Cycle repeats as the gap grows each and every raise cycle.
Bullseye.