RFID Helps Indian Company Trap Ghost Workers

RFID Helps Indian Company Trap Ghost Workers

An Indian company, Unity Infraprojects, is using RFID tags from Mumbai-based Essen to keep track of so-called "ghost workers."

UI is working to replace two pipelines leading from Lake Tansa to Mumbai. This is an important water source for this immense city. In order to make the project happen, Unity must employ a very large number of contract employees. If any significant number of these employees fail to show, it could effect the timeline and that could result in steep fines for the company; not to mention Unity will have to pay the employment companies providing the workers unless they can prove they were absent.

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So, they provide each employee an RFID tag containing worker-specific details, including the identity of the labor agency. According to India's Business Standard newspaper, each worker's image will then captured by an Ethernet camera and stored in a database.

Since most of the workers employed on the project are day-laborers, the information on each worker's tag will be matched to the information in the database each evening as they line up to be paid. Only a combination of RFID evidence and physical presence can elicit an employee's daily payment.

Mumbai skyline photo by Bluesmoon