14 DAY TRIAL // We've all had days when we wanted to be anywhere else but at the office. But what if your job entailed to have an app installed on your phone so that your boss could keep tabs on you all the time?
It might sound like a scenario taken out of George Orwell’s 1984, but a California woman claims this is the nightmare she had to put up with if she wanted to keep her job.
Myrna Arias worked as a sales executive at Intermex, and last week she filed a lawsuit with the state’s Superior Court against her former employer, who allegedly fired her for uninstalling the app which allowed the company to track her location, even outside working hours (as reported by Ars Technica).
The court documents reveal that employees at Intermex were first invited to download the tracking app called Xora back in April 2014.
Xora's intentions aren't all bad
Xora is an application for business users that helps companies to remotely manage their workers by allowing them to keep tabs of their working hours and other aspects related to their job. Xora uses GPS-like technology in order to track the location of every user and place it on a Google Map.
Xora appeals to businesses that have employees working remotely, like truck drivers who need their routes and whereabouts to be monitored permanently.
The lawsuit goes on to detail that Arias researched the app and talked with a trainer from Xora before confronting her manager, who admitted that employees were also being monitored while they were off-duty. But apparently the woman’s boss went too far when he started bragging about knowing how fast she was driving thanks to the app installed on her phone.
Afterwards, Arias proceeded to uninstall the application, which prompted a scolding session from her manager. A few weeks later, in May, she was fired for good, even as she declared she had no problem with using the app’s GPS function during normal work hours.
The suit brings about charges of invasion of privacy, retaliation, violation of California’s labor code, and wrongful termination of a working contract. The plaintiff is seeking damages for lost earnings in excess of $500,000.
