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state officials refuse to carry GPS enabled Nextel phones

Jul 12, 2006 gps navigation, misc news, motorola, phones

20 state officials were suspended yesterday for refusing to accept GPS enabled Nextel phones. The officials are state building and engineering inspectors for Massachusetts and oversee constructions as well as maintenance of amusement rides and such.

Officials said the Massachusetts Organization of State Engineers and Scientists, the union that represents the inspectors, agreed to the GPS-equipped phones last year. Under the February 2005 agreement, the inspectors agreed to keep the phones on “during all work hours,” but not during lunch or breaks. The only people with access to the data generated by the phones will be the public safety commissioner and two managers, the settlement says.

But one inspector who refused the phone said his union is grieving the policy, which he called “an invasion of privacy.”

Only two inspectors accepted to use the phone and another two were on vacation at the time. 20 employees rejected the GPS enabled phones leaving the public safety commission crippled.

Though the inspectors sat through a demonstration by a Nextel representative, they refused to yield and at the end of the day were suspended.

Said the building inspector who refused the phone: “They’ve jeopardized the public safety. If you have a trench collapse, there’s no inspector. If you have a building blow up, there’s no inspector to respond. There are no inspections.”

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