Verizon Workers Fired for Falsifying Volunteer Time

By Lindsay Welnick

Working 50 hours for free might seem like a good idea when faced with the alternative: getting fired.

Eleven Verizon employees in Georgia took advantage of the Verizon Foundation’s $750 matching grant for employees who volunteer when they allegedly admitted to registering 50 hours of community service that were never completed, according to a report by the Alpharetta-Milton Patch.

The employees entered their supposed volunteer time for a co-worker’s registered charity; that same co-worker even helped enter the fake hours, the report said.

While Verizon never paid the charity, there is an ongoing attempted fraud investigation. The community service hours would have generated $9,000 for the Verizon employee’s charity. That employee resigned in February for unrelated reasons.