You’ve heard of wage theft, but what about time theft? I’m Amy E. Feldman.
An accountant in Canada was fired for being unproductive at work, and was sued by her employer for time theft. That’s when an employee is paid for more time than she actually worked, by doing things like failing to clock out when not working, padding a timesheet, or spending work time on personal activities like watching Netflix. I mean, I’ve been told. I wouldn’t know, of course.
In any event, it’s a bigger problem than most employers realize. According to a study by Quickbooks, over half of US employees admit to getting paid for time they weren’t working at an estimated cost to companies of more than ten billion dollars a year. While such overpayment sometimes happens inadvertently, if it happens intentionally employers have a right to seek repayment of wages paid against timesheets entered fraudulently. The Canadian worker must repay her employer twenty-five hundred dollars for time she shouldn’t have been paid. Best to save your Netflix for after work.
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