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.

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