Job Monitoring Bill Shelved by Assembly Panel

A bill to prohibit employers from electronically monitoring their computer operators without advance notice or from using subliminal messages on their computer screens to try to influence them was pigeonholed Wednesday by the Assembly Labor Committee.

The legislation, heavily opposed by big business, was aimed at those firms that gather computerized information about their employees who work on video display terminals (VDTs), to determine how fast they are working, the length of their telephone calls and work breaks, even the number of trips they make to the restroom.

Assemblyman Richard Floyd (D-Hawthorne), the committee chairman, shelved the bill without a vote after listening to conflicting testimony on the need for the controversial legislation.

‘Too Complicated’

“It’s a two-year bill as far as I am concerned,” Floyd said. “It’s too complicated a subject to be acted upon this year. This bill has got a long, long, long way to go.”

However, Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica), the author of the measure, expressed optimism that some sort of an amended bill could get through this year. “I’m still hopeful,” Hayden said.

In testimony presented by the National Assn. of 9 to 5 Working Women, one unidentified AT&T; employee said she “can’t even go to the bathroom without being watched. I have to put up a flag, wait my turn, sign out, sign in, and remove my flag.”

“I work in a sweat shop,” said Mary Williams, a United Airlines ticket reservations clerk. “People shouldn’t have to live and work under this kind of pressure. Not for what we make.”

Several big-business witnesses testified, however, that outlawing the monitoring of employees who work on computers would “inhibit” the companies from providing efficient consumer services.

Susan Cavazos of AT&T; said, “The service we provide is the product we provide, and monitoring is the way to provide quality service.”

The Hayden bill also would have prohibited computer monitoring of employees for longer than one hour per work shift, banned the use of VDTs exclusively to set work production quotas, required 90-day advance notice of the introduction of VDTs into the workplace, and mandated employer-paid training of employees displaced by the computers for equivalent paid jobs elsewhere.

$1,000 Penalty

Intentional employer violations would have called for a $1,000 civil fine for each violation.

Regarding subliminal messages, Hayden said there is a $740-software program on the market now to let employers flash a 1/100 of a second message on a VDT screen for employees “to emphasize a point they may have missed at the productivity seminar.”

He also said other messages could be a picture of clouds or a field and stream, or a phrase like “You are calm,” which are designed to relax employees so they will produce more work.

“I don’t think subliminal messages are the key to the future strength of American companies,” Hayden said. “That’s a ridiculous notion.”