Employee Working Remotely Sues Company But Ordered To Pay $2,600 For Time Theft

A Canadian woman who claimed she was unfairly fired was ordered to pay back over 2,600 Canadian dollars to her former employer for giving false information about her working hours, according to Metro News. Karlee Besse has been accused of time theft, which occurs when an employee claims payment for hours they did not work.

The news outlet reported that, in this case, Besse was caught misrepresenting hours worked by a controversial tracking software called TimeCamp. The software tracks how long a document is open, how the employee uses the document, and logs the time at work.

According to Guardian, Ms. Besse, who worked remotely as an accountant in British Columbia, initially claimed she was fired from her job without cause last year and sought C$5,000 ($3,729; GBP3,066) in compensation - both in unpaid wages and severance.

However, Beese had registered more than 50 hours that "did not appear to have been spent on work-related tasks," according to the company, Reach CPA, which testified before the Civil Resolution Tribunal.

Karlee Besse decided to file a lawsuit against her employer after losing her remote employment, but instead of receiving a settlement, she was ordered to pay the organisation just over C$2,600 in compensation for misrepresenting her working hours.