A Tauranga man has agreed to pay $7000 to his former employer for copying client information to use in a new job.
Canon New Zealand took its former employee, Tauranga man Greg Boughtwood, to the Employment Relations Authority after discovering Mr Boughtwood had emailed the company's sales database to his personal email address before resigning in January.
The ERA ruling said Mr Boughtwood admitted he had emailed the databases to himself to use in another potential job with BayCopy.
Mr Boughtwood also said he had provided other confidential information to BayCopy during his employment, but said it had been with Canon NZ's consent. Canon NZ denied this claim.
BayCopy had a business agency relationship with Canon NZ, but was also a competitor in certain products and services, the ruling said.
The company and Mr Boughtwood came to an agreement during the ERA proceedings that Mr Boughtwood would pay $7000 towards Canon NZ's costs.
ERA member Kenneth Anderson ordered Mr Boughtwood not to share or make use of any further confidential information without Canon NZ's consent.
Mr Anderson ordered Mr Boughtwood to return or destroy any confidential information he still held.
Mr Boughtwood told the Bay of Plenty Times he was not happy with the outcome. "But a lone individual can't fight a multi-million dollar organisation like Canon so I just have to accept things."