EY fired dozens of staff members who attended 2 video training meetings simultaneously

[Hitman]

EY has reportedly fired a handful of U.S. staff after they were discovered to have attended two training sessions at the same time.

The employees were taking part in online classes this spring as part of the consulting giant's 'Ignite Learning Week,' The Financial Times reported.

Employees at the Big Four firm are required to spend a certain amount of their time each year on such courses, earning a mandatory amount of professional continuation credits as a result.

The staffers who were unceremoniously let go said they weren't attending two sessions at once to accumulate these credits faster, insisting it was because they didn't want to miss out on simultaneous sessions.

 

The employees who no longer work at EY told the FT they were just trying to take advantage of all the sessions they wanted to attend, and added the company bred a culture of multi-tasking.

They also claimed EY never told staffers they shouldn't be attending multiple meetings at once.

But in a statement to the FT, EY said the employees' actions went against the company's code of conduct: "Our core values of integrity and ethics are at the forefront of everything we do.

“Appropriate disciplinary action was recently taken in a small number of cases where individuals were found to be in violation of our global code of conduct and U.S. learning policy.”

EY did not immediately respond to Fortune's request for comment.

While some might argue being fired for attending multiple online calls seems like a harsh punishment, EY has already been forced to pay dearly for employees who abuse internal training and testing systems.

In 2022, EY was told to pay $100 million to the SEC after staffers were found to have cheated on ethics exams required to obtain and maintain Certified Public Accountant (CPA) licenses.

EY was also accused of withholding evidence in the SEC's investigation into the matter.

As well as paying the fine, EY said it would take on two independent consultants to address the problems relating to both ethics and transparency.

EY has reportedly updated its direction regarding future Ignite weeks, specifying that only one class should be attended at a time.