More than 300 CRA employees who improperly received CERB no longer with agency

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) says 330 employees who “inappropriately” applied for and received the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) are no longer with the agency.

In a release sent out Wednesday, the CRA provided a final update on an internal review launched last year that was meant to identify employees who improperly received the benefit. The CRA said it had identified approximately 600 cases for further investigation.

When asked for clarification, the CRA did not confirm that the 330 employees were fired. Instead, the agency said the individuals are no longer employed by CRA.

In the release, the CRA said 185 cases did not lead to an worker’s “end of employment.” Of those 185 cases, 40 ended in other disciplinary actions, such as suspensions.

The remaining cases resulted in “administrative actions” that included an “end of review,” since the employee no longer worked for the agency or were found to be a victim of identity theft, the CRA said.

The CRA said 135 other employees were eligible to receive CERB and “no disciplinary actions were applied as a result of this review.”

In the release, the CRA noted that employees of the agency were not automatically ineligible to receive CERB.

“The CRA employs individuals with a variety of employment profiles, such as temporary and student contracts; as such, some individuals were eligible to receive the CERB,” the CRA said.

The investigated cases represent a small fraction of the nearly 60,000 people who work for the CRA.

Union says CRA took an ‘aggressive approach’

Marc Brière, national president of the Union of Tax Employees, said some cases were clear-cut but the union believes that some employees who applied for and received CERB improperly did not do so deliberately.

“In some other cases, it might have been some problems in understanding the new program, just like the regular taxpayer,” Brière said.

“I notice, actually, that not everybody was axed and some received a lesser suspension. So that tells me that the CRA realized that in some cases, [the employee] did not deserve to lose [their] job for this.”

Brière said the union also thinks the CRA took an “aggressive approach to this file … We felt that some of our members were deemed guilty without having the final process being completed.”

The union has filed grievances, Brière said, but those filings do not mean the union is arguing employees should face no consequences for their actions.

“As a union, we have a duty of fair representation,” Brière said.

The CRA said that any employee who received CERB inappropriately is required to repay it if they haven’t done so already.