Foon v. Canada Customs and Revenue Agency

Full Text

166-34-30747 (2001 PSSRB 126)
Foon v. Canada Customs and Revenue Agency

Before: J. W. Potter
Appearances: B. Done, for the Grievor; J. Champagne, for the Employer
Decision rendered: December 11, 2001

Suspension (3 days) – Unauthorized access to taxpayers' information – the grievor was a rulings officer – she accessed acquaintances' tax files to identify possible leads that they had attempted to avoid paying income tax – the functions of her position did not include checking or investigating leads, which is the responsibility of the employer's Audit Section – she reported no leads with regard to those taxpayers – the employer imposed on her a three-day suspension – it argued that it is not up to employees to snoop in taxpayers' files to see if something is wrong and that there is a process for reporting leads to the Audit Section – the grievor responded that her position's duties include identifying and reporting on leads and that she may have been too keen in that regard – she stressed that the employer's process for reporting leads requires accessing taxpayers' files to obtain their social insurance number – the grievor added that she gained nothing personally by accessing those files and that she disclosed no taxpayers' information – the adjudicator found no dispute with regard to the grievor having accessed taxpayers' files – he further found that the grievor had no authority to access those, which were not part of the workload the employer had assigned to her – the adjudicator found that, in the circumstances, a three-day suspension was within an acceptable range.

Grievance denied.

Case cited:	Ward (166-2-16121 and 16122).