This is silly - it's more about the mismatch between the custom of buying a person's time and paying for the outcomes an employer is looking for. The flip side of this is that employees are stealing from their employer whenever their attention wavers from the job, for example talking with co-workers or texting or web browsing or whatever.
The reality is that hourly pay is almost always a poor approximation for the expectations between employer and employee. Calling any deviation from strictly kept time for an employee in 100% service to their employer "theft" is just silly, whether it's an employee chatting about their weekend, or an employer asking for some extra minutes. Each should (and outside of artificial constructs like this article does) weigh total compensation against benefit / effort and decide if the relationship is worth continuing.
The reality is that hourly pay is almost always a poor approximation for the expectations between employer and employee. Calling any deviation from strictly kept time for an employee in 100% service to their employer "theft" is just silly, whether it's an employee chatting about their weekend, or an employer asking for some extra minutes. Each should (and outside of artificial constructs like this article does) weigh total compensation against benefit / effort and decide if the relationship is worth continuing.