The Employment Relations Authority has upheld a claim of
breach of confidentiality brought by a former employee against her employer.
The employee had left their employment following a
confidential settlement agreement being reached.
In breach of that settlement agreement the employer sent a
copy of the settlement agreement to the Teaching Council when it reported that
the employee had resigned (which it is required to do). The attachment of the settlement agreement to
its mandatory report was contrary to the instructions from the Teaching Council
which specifically says not to attach settlement agreements to mandatory reports.
The report from the employer also specified (in another
part of the form) how much was paid to the employee by way of settlement. The ERA held that that too was a breach of
confidentiality.
The maximum fine for these breaches was $40,000, but the
ERA decided that the breaches were not deliberate as the employer had taken
legal advice as to what it should send to the Teaching Council. Unfortunately, that legal advice was
incorrect. Neither a copy of the
settlement agreement, nor the amount of the settlement should have been
disclosed to the Teaching Council. They
do not need that information under a mandatory report.
The employer was fined $2,000 with $1,500 of that to be
paid to the employee.
Alan
Knowsley
Employment Lawyer Wellington
No comments:
Post a Comment