A British Columbian woman was ordered to reimburse $1,500 to her former employer who accused her of “time theft” because of declared hours at work that she allegedly did not complete.
Karlee Besse, a remote accountant, said she was terminated without cause and then sought $5,000 in damages from her former company for unpaid wages and severance.
Her claim, however, backfired as her former employer, Reach CPA Inc., said she was fired for theft of time, according to a BC Civil Resolution Tribunal decision.
According to the company, Ms. Besse had declared 50.76 hours on her timesheets which, however, would not have been devoted to work after verification of the TimeCamp program, which had been installed on the accountant’s computer.
“Reach says its analysis of Besse’s timesheets and TimeCamp data identified discrepancies between its timesheets and software usage logs. Reach submitted videos showing how TimeCamp tracked Besse’s weather and activity. According to Reach, the videos prove that Besse engaged in time theft by recording work time in her timesheets that was not tracked by TimeCamp,” reads the decision rendered on Wednesday.
The former employee was then ordered to pay nearly $2,460 to the company, or $1,506.74 for reimbursement of time not worked and the rest to pay the court costs.