AUCKLAND, N.Z.—A former credit union employee here has won a $160,000 settlement in a case that began with the F word and a CU’s name being written in cake icing.
That in turn led to a CU’s management hacking grabbing information from the ex-employee’s Facebook page, attempting to “humiliate” the former employee, harm her future employment opportunities, and threaten to terminate a business relationship with the company that had hired the former employee, according to a ruling here.
The Human Rights Review Tribunal has ruled in favor of Karen Hammond after saying it found that her former employer, NZ Credit Union Baywide, had forwarded to employment agencies a photo Hammond had posted on her personal Facebook page with a goal of discouraging any company from hiring her. The Tribunal further found that NZ Credit Union had invaded Hammond’s privacy.
The case began when Hammond, after resigning from the credit union, held a dinner party for approximately 10 close friends, including another person who had also just resigned from the credit union. At the 2012 party Hammond served a cake that had been iced with the words “NZCU F**** You.”
Hammond then uploaded a photo of the cake to her Facebook page, which she believed to be limited to approximately 150 friends under her privacy settings.
But in its investigation the Human Rights Review Tribunal said the credit union’s management found out about the photo and “bullied” an NZ Credit Union employee into accessing her own personal Facebook page so that a screenshot could be captured of the photo of the cake.
The CU’s management then sent that screenshot to employment agencies in the local area, made phone calls aimed at hurting Hammond’s employment prospects, and then placed what the Tribunal called “severe pressure” on Hammond’s new employer to fire her. After three weeks at her new job, Hammond resigned, saying she did not want to hurt the company.
As CUToday.info had reported earlier, the credit union’s CEO, Gavin Earle had acknowledged the actions that were taken and further admitted it had breached New Zealand’s Privacy Act, but he had also alleged the claims of harm made by Hammond were exaggerated.
During the Tribunal’s 2014 hearing, Radio New Zealand News said NZCU’s former COO, Peter McAuley, had testified that the CEO or its COO, Grant Porter, who had been behind the effort to do harm to Hammond.
"I am left believing that the actions taken against Karen were driven by personal malice," Radio New Zealand quoted McAuley as saying. "My view is based on the personal ferocity and aggressiveness I witnessed displayed by Grant Porter when talking about Karen, and the deception of both myself and the board by Gavin Earle."
'F-word Commonly Used'
Hammond had baked the cake for former NZCU Marketing Manager Jantha Gooding, and Radio New Zealand quoted McAuley as saying in his testimony, “Jantha was passionate about NZCU Baywide and doing the right thing by its members, so her termination was hard for her and her friends at Baywide to accept. I therefore completely understand the message being conveyed on the cake was intended to give Jantha strength."
He further testified that executives at the credit union frequently used salty language.
“The F-word is commonly used throughout Baywide ... swearing and blue jokes is very much a part of the chemistry I saw between the two (executives)," Radio New Zealand quoted McAuley as telling the Tribunal.
Hammond posted the picture on her private Facebook page, and McAuley testified that the CEO and others discussed how to hack the page to obtain the photo. Once the photo was obtained, e-mail evidence presented during the Tribunal showed that the credit union’s lending manager, Julie Baxter, then sent an e-mail to Hammond’s new employer, Financepoint, offering to cover the costs of terminating her employment under New Zealand’s 90-day rule, according to Radio New Zealand.
E-mails further showed that Financepoint responded by saying there were no grounds for termination, to which Baxter then replied, “Baywide has no option but to discontinue processing loans” through Financepoint. Eighty-percent of Financepoint’s business is related to NZCU Baywide.
NZCU Baywide COO Porter told the Tribunal that the credit union was unhappy to have Hammond processing its members’ loans, saying the former employee was “openly septic” toward the CU.
The credit union did not, however, cease its agreement with Financepoint, according to Porter’s testimony as quoted by Radio New Zealand. Porter also said Hammond had done a good job while at the credit union and there were no suspicions of any fraudulent activities.
Testimony Contradicted
According to the report, Porter contradicted earlier testimony from the credit union’s HR manager, Louise Alaxandra, that he had instructed her to send the cake image to local employment agencies, saying he had given no such instruction.
Porter also contradicted testimony from the former CFO, McAuley, who had earlier said he had advised the CU’s management that the Facebook posting was private and sharing it would breach privacy, according to Radio New Zealand.
The CEO, Gavin Earle, however, said the credit union had breached the Privacy Act and he apologized to Hammond. The credit union and its attorneys told the Tribunal that it did do some harm to Hammond, but not to the extent she has alleged, according to Radio New Zealand.
The Human Rights Tribunal awarded Hammond $98,000 for "the severe humiliation, severe loss of dignity and severe injury to feelings inflicted on her,” and added further damages of $70,000 for loss of income and legal costs.
Hammond told local media the last three years have been difficult. "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.