NZCU Baywide staffer’s $168,000 payout icing on the cake
The tribunal has confirmed what I have been saying for three years – that NZCU Baywide acted maliciously and unlawfully.
The woman awarded a record $168,000 payout from her former employer says she is ‘‘relieved and elated at the decision’’ by the Human Rights Tribunal.
Hawke’s Bay woman Karen Hammond, who iced a cake with derogatory comments about her former employer, has won her claim that her privacy was breached when the company took an image of the cake from her Facebook page and used it to harm opportunities.
The Human Rights Review Tribunal ordered NZ Credit Union Baywide to pay a record $168,070 in damages to Hammond.
It ordered the company to apologise to Hammond ‘‘for the severe humiliation, severe loss of dignity and severe injury to feelings’’.
NZCU Baywide chief executive Gavin Earle sent an email to all staff
her
employment about the cake photograph.
The company must also retract in- formation it sent to staff and other agencies about her, and undertake training to ensure all staff understand the Privacy Act.
In a statement yesterday , Karen Hammond said the case had ‘‘consumed my life for three years’’.
‘‘I had to represent myself at the tribunal because NZCU Baywide left me in a position where I could not afford a lawyer.
‘‘The tribunal has confirmed what I have been saying for three years – that NZCU Baywide acted ma- liciously and unlawfully.
‘‘I lost employment opportunities, it caused major grief for my family, the financial impact meant my partner had to leave the region to find work that could sustain us, and the humiliation and stress.
‘‘The personal impact has been huge.’’ She said she was pleased to know that the protection of all NZCU Baywide staff in terms of their privacy had been achieved.