'Pile of crap' comment breached agreement

A record of settlement required the worker to desist from making any "degrading, defamatory, negative or disparaging" comments about the company. File photo / Thinkstock

A worker who posted comments online calling his former employer "a pile of crap" has been penalised for breaching a settlement agreement.

David Nuttall posted the comments on a Xero blog site in reference to SimPro Software NZ Ltd, a company he had worked for in 2013.

The December 2014 post referred to SimPro as "a pile of crap" and "a waste of space", the Employment Relations Authority said.

The post broke the terms of a record of settlement between Mr Nuttall and the company, which required him to desist from making any "degrading, defamatory, negative or disparaging" comments about SimPro or its personnel.

The authority found there was no dispute that Mr Nuttall had posted the comments online, and no doubt the comments were negative and disparaging.

Mr Nuttall was ordered to pay $1000 towards legal costs, and ordered to comply with the settlement.

Authority member Robin Arthur said although Mr Nuttall had arranged for the removal of the comments from the Xero blog, the compliance order was made in case there were further postings which had not been brought to SimPro's attention.

There were allegations he had made similar postings on other blogs, but the evidence was insufficient.

In a written response to the authority, Mr Nuttall said SimPro was "seeking to silence an ex-employee expressing his opinion".

The authority agreed the settlement agreement did limit Mr Nuttall's freedom of speech, but that was an arrangement he had entered into voluntarily.

The record of settlement between the parties, signed in January 2014, was confidential.

The decision follows the case of a former employee who posted images on Facebook of a cake iced with rude comments about her former employer.

The company, NZ Credit Union Baywide (NZCU), was ordered to pay former employee Karen Hammond $168,070.88 in damages for it's revenge-driven response to the cake, which included ringing recruitment agencies and warning them against hiring her.