Suppression bid by Phil Rudd declined

AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd and Tauranga resident has unsuccessfully tried to use his celebrity to suppress details of an employment row at his Tauranga restaurant.

The restaurant, Phil's Place, has been taken to the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) and the musician has filed for suppression to keep his name out of the media.

The grounds for the name suppression related to Mr Rudd's "presence as a witness" to the alleged row, "purient" interest from the media and the "negative impact" on Phil's Place. The document also raised allegations of "possible employee theft" against former staff.

Rudd told the ERA he was a "well-known musician with security concerns if his identity was revealed".

Mr Rudd's former staff involved in the alleged employment dispute opposed the non-publication order and objected to it due to Mr Rudd's celebrity status. They said he should not be given "more protection than anybody else".

ERA member Tania Tetitaha declined Mr Rudd's application and said Rudd had used his fame to promote Phil's Place and his involvement with the restaurant was well known. She said the ERA understood Rudd had been "intimately involved" with the cause of the dispute.

Allegations against Rudd's restaurant were lodged in August 2012, but details of what is alleged are yet to be revealed.

He was not a "passive bystander" and the ERA understood "he does not largely dispute what occurred and his involvement".

"If [that is] so, his reputation cannot be marred by events he accepts are truthful," Ms Tetitaha said.

"There are no exceptional circumstances or real risk to the administration of justice if this evidence were published."

Media had also already published his connection with the dispute, rendering any name suppression useless, she said.

Rudd has owned Phil's Place since 2011. The restaurant closed last July but re-opened and a new management structure was brought in on April 13.

Rudd left AC/DC in 1983 and retired to New Zealand but rejoined the band in 1994.