Bell Canada fires small number of employees over attendance falsification

bell canada terminated a small number of employees after an internal review found intentional and repeated falsification of workplace attendance. The company said the dismissals were for violating its code of conduct, and it described the conduct as employees entering the office, swiping in and then leaving.

Luc Levasseur, Bell's spokesperson, said, "In each case, there was a thorough investigation and individuals were presented with clear evidence of their misconduct." He added that "The majority of individuals admitted to deliberate and repeated falsification of workplace attendance."

Bell offices across Canada

Bell said the violations took place in offices across the country. In one case, the company cited an employee who swiped their card just before midnight and again after the hour to signal to the system they had been in office two days in a row. In another, Bell said an employee entered company premises, used fitness facilities and left.

Levasseur described the practice as "swipe and go." Bell also said it has maintained a three-day in-office policy for most of its corporate employees. The company said no unionized employees were affected and that there is no wider work force reduction program under way.

For-cause dismissals

BCE said the terminations are being considered for cause. Tara Vasdani, managing partner and employment lawyer with Remote Law Canada, said for-cause dismissals are rare in the Canadian employment law context and can carry the loss of severance entitlements. She said courts have traditionally reserved findings of cause for serious misconduct such as theft, fraud, dishonesty or other conduct that irreparably damages the employment relationship.

Teilen Celentano, an employment lawyer with Samfiru Tumarkin LLP, said a company would typically have to warn employees before terminating them for cause. Ryan Bonnar, a spokesperson for the firm, said it had been contacted by "a few dozen former Bell employees, some with many years of service, who allege they were fired for ‘coffee badging,’ or a ‘badge in and bounce.’"

Federal workers on Monday

Bonnar also said, "The message we’re hearing in some cases is that this wasn’t a secret – it was a workplace culture often encouraged by their own managers. These employees believed that as long as they completed their work and hit their targets, their physical location was secondary." The federal service returned to office full-time on Monday, with all other federal employees in office four days a week.

For Bell employees who were dismissed, the immediate issue is whether the company will treat each case as for cause, which can affect severance. The company has already said its review was case-specific, and the dispute now sits with the affected workers and the law firms hearing from them.