Manama: A decision by the mayor of Madinah region in western Saudi Arabia to have the employees use the fingerprint reader five times a day to authenticate their presence at the workplace has caused controversy.
The more than 2,000 employees on Monday received an email informing that they needed to prove their attendance throughout the seven working hours by using the fingerprint reader when they arrive, then at 9.30am, at 10.30am, at 11.45am and upon leaving.
If an employee does not use the reader on the three designated times between his arrival and departure, he will be considered absent for three hours and his salary will be deducted accordingly, and if he does not sign in or sign off, he will be considered absent the full day.
The employees were told that the new attendance-tracking system would be applied starting on Tuesday.
However, several employees said they were upset by the new system to track their time and attendance and gathered in a hall to convey their feelings and to ask the mayor to reconsider his decision.
However, Mohammad Al Amiri, who was appointed mayor in May, told them he would not revert to the former system and that they had to adapt to the new attendance-tracking rules.
“You are giving me your own interpretations, and I tell that I have understood the system and how it works for 30 years,” he said, quoted by Saudi daily Okaz on Wednesday.
According to the daily, the “dialogue” lasted 15 seconds and the mayor walked away while employees charged that the new system was a unilateral and personal decision that is not stipulated in the civil service laws governing the public sector.
Some employees said that the decision would result in a confidence crisis with the management and insisted on its revocation.
“It seems that the management is not interested in enhancing productivity and that it is instead focusing on monitoring employees, which creates an unhealthy atmosphere,” they said.
The employees added that they rejected the exemptions accorded to heads of departments and senior officials, saying that in case the system remained, only those suffering from chronic diseases should be exempted.
Comments on the internet were mostly sympathetic to the employees, although several people insisted on the advantages of exercising a much tighter control on the attendance and time in the public sector amid complaints of lackadaisical attitudes.
