EY fires staff for 'cheating' on training courses

EY fired dozens of U.S. staffers last week for taking multiple online training courses simultaneously, violating the firm's ethics policies, according to recent published reports.

An investigation at the Big Four Firm revealed that some employees had attended more than one online training class at a time during the "EY Ignite Learning Week" in May, which the firm deemed cheating. None of the terminated employees were offered benefits or severance, an anonymous source from EY told the New York Post. 

"At EY, our core values of integrity and ethics are at the forefront of everything we do," the firm said in a statement. "Appropriate disciplinary action will be taken on any violation of our Code of Conduct and/or US Learning Policy. EY US has terminated individuals who, after thorough investigation, were found to have violated our Global Code of Conduct and US Learning Policy."

Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

Several of the fired employees, speaking to the Financial Times anonymously, said they did not think they were violating EY policy. One consultant who was fired told the publication that there was no warning that watching multiple sessions at the same time was not allowed.

"Their emails marketing EY Ignite actually encouraged us to join as many sessions as our schedule allowed," the person told the FT. "We all work with three monitors. I was hoping to hear new ideas that I could bring to the table to separate myself from others."

Employees on the private employee messaging board Fishbowl questioned whether the firm itself was responsible for using a system that allowed multiple training sessions to be open on Zoom at once and counted overlapping CPE credits.

Some staff felt the terminations were a disproportionately severe response, with one Fishbowl user calling it "just bizarre" in a comment. "Perhaps reduce their rating, deduct bonus, or even delay promo, but simply terminating them effective immediately is just cruel … If this was so important, then implement better systems."

The firm changed its language for future EY Ignite events after beginning its investigation. In an email viewed by the FT regarding a training event in August, the firm warned that employees were "expected to complete this learning activity with integrity, including being present for all content and class interactions."

The email also noted: "You should not take any other learning while completing this activity."