Tim White discusses 'The Spying Game'

How would you feel if you called out sick, only to find out that your employer hired a spy to find out if you were really ill?

Target 12 Investigator Tim White and his team have uncovered just that in a special report airing Monday night.

"As you know, a lot of cities and towns are struggling in their budget, they're just way over budget on all their costs. And one of the biggest costs they have is overtime for public safety. So, as one community has done, they've hired an outside private investigative firm to go around and see if workers who called in sick are actually sick. Workers who said they're out injured are actually out injured. As you can imagine, the rank and file of that department, it's not sitting very well with them," said Tim White on The Rhode Show Monday morning.

The private investigative firm actually goes around in a vehicle with a camera, trying to catch some activity on tape.

"And then they bring that worker into the department and say, this is what we caught you doing. And, some of the things that they caught, they had workers out injured, mowing their lawns, they had workers out injured moving furniture, workers who were sick working a second job and obviously disciplinary action followed," continued White.

Some may argue this type of investigating could be wasting money. But, Tim said, "it depends on which side you're on. The labor unions that are involved with this department say this is a waste of taxpayer dollars. This isn't the reason that it saves money, but the city is saying, we spend $48,000 over two and a half years and in that time, we've saved more than $2 million in sick and injury, just sick and injury overtime costs. They're drawing that line whether the union says no, no, that's not the reason."

You can see Tim's investigation "The Spying Game" Monday night on Fox Providence at 10 p.m. and on WPRI 12 at 11 p.m..