A new app designed to combat wage theft and foster worker well-being has been launched on 7 July.
Developed in partnership with UNI Global Union, WeClock lets workers monitor the real hours they work, while keeping control over their data.
COVID-19 is placing growing demands on workers’ lives – demands that often go unpaid and unnoticed, increasing stress and workload. With WeClock, workers can self-track their working hours, breaks, commute times and how long they use work apps out of hours.
“WeClock is a useful tool to help workers gather key data which could ultimately help unions bargain for better pay and working conditions,” said UNI Global Union General Secretary, Christy Hoffman. “WeClock allows workers to make their data work for themselves, and no one else.”
As employers increasingly use methods such as surveillance in the workplace, enforced wearables and apps on their personal devices to track employees, WeClock allows workers to push back against the imbalance.
As well as monitoring working patterns, WeClock also sets out to assess decent work, fair work, working conditions, or work/life balance.
Andrew Pakes, Research Director of UNI affiliate, Prospect Union, has welcomed WeClock:
“Data is the new power at work and it is essential that workers get a say over their own data. Through our initial test of WeClock we have been impressed with what it can do. The kind of data WeClock records, that we control, could change the game for workers worldwide.”
WeClock was designed as an open-source collaborative effort between unions, technologists, researchers, and workers themselves.
WeClock is free and available for Android and iOS, including Apple Watch, at https://www.weclock.it/
View the ’WeClock for Trade Unions’ Onboarding Kit
See the 2019 Connective Action: Digital Tools for Trade Unions for a full survey of tools designed by and for trade unions. Also, see UNI Global Union’s Top Ten Principles for Workers’ Data Rights and Top Ten Principles for Ethical AI.
