AUCKLAND, N.Z.—A Human Rights Review Tribunal here has heard accusations that a local credit union stole a picture of a cake iced with swear words about the CU from a former employee's Facebook page, and then shared the photo with the former employee’s new employer and recruitment agencies in an effort to destroy her career.
The credit union’s CEO has acknowledged that the CU did indeed do so, breaching the country’s Privacy Act, and calling the actions “unacceptable,” but has also alleged the claims of harm being made by the former employee are exaggerated.
Alleging breach of privacy at the hearing was Karen Hammond, the former employee of the $250-million NZCU Baywide, whose allegations have gotten some support from the credit union’s former CFO, Peter McAuley, according to Radio New Zealand News, which is covering the Tribunal.
McAuley has alleged that it was either NZCU Baywide CEO Gavin Earle or its current COO, Grant Porter, who were 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."
At the heart of the case is a cake that was baked by Hammond on which she used cake icing to write the F-word and the name of the credit union. Hammond testified that she had baked the cake to cheer up another former NZCU Baywide employee, ex-Marketing Manager Jantha Gooding, a friend of Hammond’s who had earlier reached an agreement to leave the credit union. Hammond testified that she had “iced it with my feelings.”
'F-word Commonly Used'
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.