STRATEGIC PARTNERS
January 27, 2000
SAN FRANCISCO -- Bank of America is abandoning its "Adopt an ATM" program, which encouraged employees to help maintain the bank's network of machines in their spare time, according to Reuters. Instead, bank employees can call a toll-free hotline to report an ATM that is not being properly maintained. When it announced the program in December, Bank of America described it as a morale booster for its 160,000 employees, who are under pressure to reduce expenses following a round of layoffs. But California labor commission officials criticized the program, saying it could be construed as coercive and reminding the bank that employees should be compensated for any work they are asked to perform on the bank's 14,000 ATMs. The resulting publicity was mostly negative, and news outlets across the country poked fun at the bank. A Bank of America spokesperson said that any of the 2,600 employees who had participated in the program around the country could notify their managers and request overtime pay if they felt it was deserved.
