'Time theft' | Ethical issues arise as tracking software gets employee sacked

A worker has been ordered to pay back the equivalent of £1500 in wages to her ex-employer, after tracking software deemed she had “misrepresented” hours of work.

According to a tribunal in Canada, Karlee Besse, who worked remotely as an accountant, was accused of “time theft” by her ex-employer Reach CPA, who claimed had logged more than 50 hours that “did not appear to have spent on work-related tasks”.

The firm’s claim was based on evidence from an employee-tracking software called TimeCamp, which had been installed on Besse’s work laptop. The software tracks how long a document is open, how it’s used by an employee, and logs times of key actions.

Reach CPA told the legal proceedings it had “identified irregularities between [Besse’s] timesheets and the software usage logs”.