MONTREAL -- An app for mobile phones will no longer be used instead of a punch clock to allow workers to log in their time on construction fields, according to Quebec’s arbitration tribunal.

If an employer wants to make use of such an app, instead of using traditional punch clocks and time sheets, they will have to negotiate how it can be used with union groups in the construction industry.

With this ruling, the tribunal sided with FTQ-Construction, who had submitted a complaint after an entrepreneur in the electrical industry had started using a punch clock application for his employees.

The entrepreneur had asked his employees to use their mobile phones to download an application that allowed them to punch in whenever they would arrive at work or leave.

The system was not mandatory. Workers who wanted to stay with a timesheet system were allowed to do so.

The arbitration tribunal, however, determined that the use of this application did not follow collective labour agreements.

First, the tribunal determined that the app was the equivalent of a punch clock for the purposes of the collective agreement. Under this agreement, the employer must be the one to provide a punch clock out of his own pocket, and this clock must be installed in the closest possible place to where work begins and ends.

The employer also asked workers to use their personal phones, as opposed to work devices provided by the company.

“This is precisely what the employer did in this case: to put the responsibility of procuring equipment and the operating costs on his workers’ shoulders,” ruled the tribunal.

It added that “the fact that operating costs are minimal changes nothing in this matter. The employee must provide his own phone at his own costs and must pay for the use of this device that his employer requires.”

In addition, the arbitration tribunal ruled that the way the employer arranged for this to only apply to some workers and not others presents additional problems.

“The employer cannot, through special agreement with a salaried employee, arrange working conditions different from those laid out in the collective agreement, or that were not foreseen in the agreement,” wrote arbitrator Gabriel M. Côté.

“The special agreements invoked by the employer are therefore invalid.”

The tribunal ruled that timekeeping must be done with an actual punch clock that has been physically installed by the employer.

“Any introduction of a new technology for timekeeping which does not adhere to the current collective agreement must be negotiated with union groups,” it added.

- This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 24, 2020.