For employees, workplace policies may feel a little bit like the instructions for building IKEA furniture: confusing, complicated, and mind-numbing. Based on these feelings, it would not be surprising if many employees chose to forego a careful line by line reading. However, a recent decision of the BC Civil Resolution Tribunal (CRT) may make employees think twice about their choice.
In Besse v Reach CPA Inc., the CRT found that an employer had just cause to terminate an employee, Ms. Besse, based on her engagement in time theft [1]. While time theft can involve a variety of actions, it amounts to an employee being paid for time that they have not spent working.
Ms. Besse’s time theft was discovered through the use of a time-tracking program, TimeCamp, that was installed on her work computer [2]. For each activity done on a computer, the program records the electronic pathway and the time spent [3]. Based on this data, an employer is able to determine the amount of time an employee spends on tasks for work [4]. A comparison of Ms. Besse’s TimeCamp data and her entries into a timesheet revealed that she had been paid for over 50 hours of work that she had not done [5]. The CRT ordered Ms. Besse to repay her previous employer over $1,500 for the time theft [6].
While genuine time theft is clearly a serious violation of the employer-employee relationship that should be avoided, this case also provides another warning for employees. Particularly as remote and hybrid work continue, employers are interested in electronically monitoring the activities of their employees through software like TimeCamp. As such, it is essential that employees learn if and how they are being electronically monitored.
In 2022, the Ontario government passed the Working for Workers Act [7]. It amended the Employment Standards Act to require employers with 25 or more employees to create an Electronic Monitoring Policy [8]. This was the topic of a previous blog post. A monitoring policy must include a description of how and in what circumstances the employer may electronically monitor employees [9]. Employees should familiarize themselves with their employer’s monitoring policy and software to ensure the time they spend working is accurately accounted for. These measures may help employees protect themselves from untrue allegations of time theft. For example, if an employer uses a time-tracking program on workplace computers, an employee may have to manually enter into the program or otherwise document the time they spend working with hardcopy documents. If an employee is unaware they are being electronically monitored or unsure how the software works, they may not account for this time, leaving themselves open to mistaken allegations of time theft. For this reason, the Electronic Monitoring Policy is one that employees might actually want to read.
-MG
References:
[1] 2023 BCCRT 27 at para 26 [Besse].
[2] Ibid at paras 18–24.
[3] Ibid at para 20.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid at para 24.
[6] Ibid at para 28.
[7] SO 2022, c 7.
[8] Ibid at s 4.
[9] Ibid.
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