Antigua Government to Implement Biometric Attendance Tracking

The Government of Antigua has approved the installation of biometric clocks across various departments to improve the accuracy of tracking employee attendance and overtime hours. The decision stems from persistent discrepancies between hours claimed by workers and those registered by employers, highlighting inefficiencies in the manual system.

Biometric time and attendance solutions have been gaining popularity in recent years, with the technology being seen by many as a more accurate and consistent way to track employee hours in the workplace.

Though the exact modality that Antigua plans on using for this program has yet to be confirmed, and no specific timeline for its implementation has been given, officials are adamant the system will improve upon existing methods.

“We are persuaded that [biometric clocks] ought to be utilised in places where overtime matters,” said the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff Lionel Hurst. “What we have found is that there is a discrepancy sometimes in the hours claimed by the worker and the hours registered by the employer, in this case the ministries. And it doesn’t lend for good relations between worker and employer.”

The Antigua/Barbuda Broadcasting Services (ABS) already uses biometric clocks, requiring employees to submit biometric data upon entering the premises. The broader implementation across government departments aims to enhance data accuracy and foster better employer-employee relations.

During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of business around the world turned to biometric time and attendance solutions not only for tracking hours, but to try and ensure mask mandates were being followed in areas that required them. Conversely, the pandemic also brought into question how sanitary the use of fingerprint scanners was, with a number of government agencies in India, for example, pausing their use of that biometric modality to avoid potentially spreading germs between workers.

Source: Antigua Observer

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July 29, 2024 – by Tony Bitzionis