A Canada Revenue Agency employee has lost his bid to get his job back after being fired for accessing his own tax records during work hours, a breach the federal labour board ruled was serious misconduct under the agency’s strict privacy rules.“He should have known better,” wrote adjudicator Audrey Lizotte of the Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board. “Trust is at the core of an employee-employer relationship, even more so when the employee has access to highly sensitive and personal taxpayer information.”.Blacklock's Reporter says the customer service agent, based in Montréal and earning $59,000 a year, accessed his personal tax file five times. Although he did not look at any other taxpayers’ records or appear to seek any financial benefit, CRA managers said the action violated the agency’s zero tolerance policy on unauthorized access.“The Canada Revenue Agency is entrusted with the most personal and sensitive taxpayer information,” Lizotte wrote. “It must act when breaches occur as the public’s confidence depends on it.”According to the board, CRA policy explicitly forbids employees from accessing information not directly related to their official duties — including their own tax records. .“Accessing the information the Agency collects is strictly prohibited unless specifically required for the employee’s work,” the ruling stated.To catch unauthorized access, the Agency uses a monitoring system called the electronic fraud management system, which automatically sends alerts when an employee views their own file or accesses accounts flagged as sensitive, including those of public figures.The case reflects a broader and long-standing problem of internal snooping at CRA. Agency records show a pattern of employees improperly browsing tax files belonging to ex-spouses, family members, co-workers and high-profile individuals. In one of the worst cases, a single staffer in 2016 was caught reviewing the records of 1,264 taxpayers using keyword searches..Following criticism from the Privacy Commissioner in 2013 for what was called “disturbing” laxity in guarding taxpayer data, the CRA introduced tighter controls. Still, access-to-information records show unauthorized access remains a persistent issue. Over a six-year span, 21% of all disciplinary actions at the agency involved employees looking at tax files without permission.In rare instances, criminal misconduct has also occurred, including cases where employees altered returns to fabricate refunds or diverted money into their own accounts.The Montréal employee at the center of the latest ruling was dismissed for policy violation alone. The board concluded that, even without malicious intent, the act of looking at one’s own file was a clear breach of professional conduct.
