BC Woman Was Ordered To Pay Ex-Employer Over $2K For 'Time Theft' While Working From Home

A woman in B.C. has been ordered to pay her former employer $2,603 for engaging in "time theft" while she was working from home.

In a ruling made on January 11, 2023, the Civil Resolution Tribunal in B.C. said Karlee Besse owed her ex-employer, Reach CPA, money after a time-tracking program was installed on her computer to help with time management.

Besse said her employment was terminated "without just cause" and alleged she was entitled to $1,371 in unpaid wages and $4,166 for one month's pay of severance pay.

However, Reach argues that Besse's employment with the company was ended because she'd engaged in "time theft," so wasn't entitled to severance pay.

What happened?

Besse was employed by the company from October 2021 to March 2022. In September 2021, prior to starting, Besse and Reach agreed that she could work from home.

On her first day, both parties signed an agreement that meant Reach would forgive an advance it made to Besse to buy home office equipment and to pay for accounting program fees.

In February, Besse said she felt "unproductive" and that she wasn't performing as well as she should have been and started having weekly meetings with her manager to help her better manage her work.

At this time, Reach installed TimeCamp, a time-tracking program, on her work laptop.

The following month, Besse had another meeting to discuss some of her files, which the company said were "were over-budget and behind schedule."

The company said it also became concerned about a timesheet entry Besse had made for a file she hadn't worked on.

Following the discovery, the company analyzed TimeCamp data from February 22 to March 25 and found there were over 50 hours unaccounted hours that Besse had reported on her timesheets but "did not appear to have spent on work-related tasks."

The parties met to discuss the unaccounted-for hours and while Besse was offered time by the firm's principal to consider the information, she declined. Her employment was terminated later that day.

What the Tribunal decided

Besse argued that she had not understood how TimeCamp worked and therefore didn't know how to distinguish between work and personal activities.

She also said she'd spent time working on hard copies of client documents which wouldn't be captured on TimeCamp.

However, videos submitted to the tribunal showed how TimeCamp records when and how long documents are open for, as well as detail on activities so Reach could determine if it was work or non-work-related.

"For example, if Miss Besse had a streaming service like Disney Plus open, TimeCamp recorded its electronic pathway and how long the service was accessed. As this was not activity associated with client work, Reach would classify it as personal," the tribunal added.

The tribunal dismissed Besse's claims and ordered that she pay $2,603 in debt and damages for time theft and the outstanding part of the advance she had been paid.

"Time theft in the employment context is viewed as a very serious form of misconduct," Tribunal member Meghan Stewart said in the decision.

This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.