Labour board backs firing over CERB fraud

A federal labour board has upheld the dismissal of a government employee who fraudulently claimed thousands in pandemic relief payments, marking the first ruling of its kind.

Blacklock's Reporter says an adjudicator with the Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board determined the employee knowingly disregarded eligibility rules.

“She knew the importance of correctly understanding eligibility criteria and sticking to it,” wrote adjudicator Nancy Rosenberg.

“However, in her own case, the grievor seemed to go out of her way to not clearly understand or obtain definitive information on the eligibility criteria and whether she met it. Her end goal seemed to be an attempt to maintain plausible deniability.”

Jacqueline Byrne, of St. John’s, who earned $64,000 annually as an Employment Insurance benefits officer with the Department of Employment, was fired after applying seven times for Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) payments, receiving a total of $14,000.

“She was still receiving her full department salary which made her ineligible,” Rosenberg wrote.

Byrne, a federal employee for 20 years, was responsible for ensuring accurate claim processing. She testified that she was confused by “conflicting information in the media.”

The Board rejected this argument and upheld her termination.

Rosenberg emphasized that Parliament designed CERB for specific hardship cases when it swiftly enacted the program to assist financially struggling Canadians.

“The temporary CERB program was put in place to ease the financial burden by quickly getting some money into the hands of impacted Canadians to cover their basic living needs, to help keep a roof overhead and food on the table,” she wrote.

At least 49 Department of Employment staff were fired for CERB fraud. A 2023 departmental briefing acknowledged widespread irregularities in the program, which exceeded its initial $24 billion estimate, ultimately costing $81.6 billion. Auditors have yet to fully account for the overspending.

Government figures show 190,254 people quit jobs to claim $2,000 monthly pandemic relief cheques.

Benefits were also paid to 1,522 prisoners, 704 claimants residing outside Canada, and 434 children under age 15, all of whom were ineligible under the Act.

The program also issued payments to 391 deceased individuals, including cases of attempted identity theft.

“As part of the intake control in place for the delivery of benefits, a verification of the individual’s identity through the Social Insurance Register was conducted,” stated the 2023 Briefing Binder.

“Applications were not processed in situations where the applicant’s death was registered.”