Retail employer demands 24/7 GPS tracking on workers making $16/hour through a “workforce management” app on their personal phones, the employees refuse: ‘Why do they need my location at 11 PM, on weekends, or while I’m on vacation?’

Author image for Etai Eshet
Etai Eshet • Editor
Jun 26, 2026 8:00 AM EDT

A retail employer paying $16 an hour recently determined that this generous compensation package should also include the privilege of installing an app on workers' personal phones

An app that (I hope your'e sitting down for this) tracks their precise location around the clock, monitors nearby bluetooth devices, transmits data in the background, and continues sending information even when closed, which, to be fair, is a pretty comprehensive surveillance setup for a job that takes place entirely inside one building, never involves driving anywhere, and ends the moment an employee walks out the door to go live their private life that the company now apparently needs constant updates about.

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  • Man sitting on a couch and looking at his phone in a bright room with a plant and floor lamp.
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    Man staring at his phone with a wary expression, like something suddenly feels invasive, as shown by a model.

  • Yesterday my manager announced that everyone has to install a new "workforce management" app on their
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  • personal phone by Friday. We already use a website to see our schedules, but apparently this app will handle clocking in, shift. changes, messages, training
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  • videos and "attendance verification." The part nobody mentioned until we started installing it is that the app asks for precise location access set to
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  • Always, not just while using the app. When I selected "only while using," it gave me an error saying my employer's policy requires. continuous access. I work inside
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  • one retail location. There is no driving, delivery, field work or any legitimate reason for them to know where I am after I leave.
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  • A few of us asked the manager about it and he said the app needs to confirm we are physically near the store when clocking in. That still doesn't
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  • explain why it needs my location at 11 PM, on weekends, or while I'm on vacation. One coworker checked the permissions and noticed it also requests
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  • Bluetooth access, access to nearby devices, permission to run in the background and the ability to send data even when the app is closed. The company
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  • isn't offering phones or paying any portion of our phone bills. We were basically told that having a compatible smartphone
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  • Man sitting on a couch and looking at his phone in a bright room with a plant behind him.
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    Man checking his phone with a wary expression, like he's questioning a work request that follows him off the clock, as shown by a model.

  • is now part of the job, despite that never being mentioned when any of us were hired.
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  • I refused the Always permission and my manager told me I would have to write my clock-in times on paper "until HR decides
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  • whether that's acceptable." He also warned that manual entries may be treated as attendance exceptions, which feels like a
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  • quiet threat to discipline anyone who won't consent. I'm not trying to be difficult, I just dont think earning $16 an hour gives a
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  • corporation permission to track where I sleep, shop or spend my days off. Has anyone successfully pushed back against something
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  • like this? I'm considering asking for the policy in writing and contacting my state labor department, but I'd like to know what documentation I should collect first.
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  • Requiring location access only while using the app would handle clock-ins just fine. Continuous background tracking that runs at 11 PM on a Tuesday, through weekends, and during vacation has nothing to do with confirming someone is near a store at shift start. Those are two different things being treated as the same thing, and the distinction matters.


    What makes it worse is the full permission list. Bluetooth access, nearby device scanning, background data transmission, and sending data when the app is closed is not a scheduling tool. Nobody mentioned any of this until employees were already mid-installation, which is not an oversight.


    Most revealing is how management responded to pushback. Flagging manual clock-in entries as attendance exceptions is not a neutral administrative note. It is a quiet warning that non-compliance will be treated as a performance issue, pressure dressed up as paperwork.

    Sixteen dollars an hour does not purchase access to someone’s life outside the building.


     

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