A woman in Canada has been ordered in civil court to pay damages to her former employer for ‘theft of time’ after she was caught claiming unworked hours by tracking software.
Karlee Besse, who worked as a home-based accountant in British Columbia, first argued she was wrongfully dismissed and sought compensation of $5,000 (£3,056) for unpaid wages and severance pay .
But Reach CPA said he fired her because she ‘stole time’ and counterclaimed the wages paid for the misrepresented hours as well as the unpaid amount of an advance made to Ms Besse when she begin to work.
The company said it discovered that Ms Besse had recorded more than 50 hours on her timesheets which “did not appear to have been spent on work-related tasks”.
Reach had previously installed staff tracking software called TimeCamp on his work laptop after he began having weekly performance meetings with his manager.
The court document in the case said: “Reach says its analysis of Ms. Besse’s timesheets and TimeCamp data identified irregularities between her timesheets and software usage logs.
“Access submitted videos showing how TimeCamp tracked Miss Besse’s weather and activity.
“He says the videos prove Miss Besse engaged in time theft by recording work time in her timesheets which was not tracked by TimeCamp.”
Ms Besse said she found the software difficult to use and couldn’t tell the difference between work and personal use.
But the company showed how Timecamp could distinguish between the two, such as whether it had been used to access streaming services like Disney+ and for how long.
Ms. Besse also said she spent a lot of time working with hard copies of client documents that would not have been captured by TimeCamp and that she did not tell Reach about it because she “knew that they wouldn’t want to hear that” and was afraid.
The company provided TimeCamp data showing Ms Besse’s impression, which it said showed she could not have produced the amount of hard copies needed and details would have to be entered into the software at some point. , which did not happen.
“I’m so sorry,” said the accountant
When confronted with the timing analysis in a video-recorded meeting with the company, Ms Besse said: “Obviously I put time on files that I didn’t have. affected and that was not correct or appropriate in any way, and I acknowledge that and so for that I’m so sorry…I can’t hide it.”
Tribunal member Megan Stewart found Reach proved Ms Besse had committed time theft, which she described as “a very serious form of misconduct”.
Dismissing the wrongful dismissal claim, she said: “Given that trust and honesty are essential to a working relationship, especially in a remote work environment where direct supervision is absent, I find the Miss Besse’s misconduct led to an irreparable breach of her employment relationship with Reach and that the dismissal was proportionate to the circumstances.”
She ordered Ms Besse to pay Reach a total of $2,757 (£1,691), including ‘debt and time theft damages’ and the remaining part of the advance she had received of the company.
