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Baker of offensive cake gets last laugh on ex-employer

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Employee use of social media has been a concern of risk managers for some time.

But here’s an example that really takes the cake.

Napier, New Zealand, woman Karen Hammond recently was awarded NZ$168,000 ($127,075) after she claimed her former employers breached her privacy by circulating a screenshot of an offensive cake she had baked to recruitment agencies.

Ms. Hammond left NZ Credit Union Baywide in March 2012 and five days later baked a cake for a former colleague, whom she believed had been constructively dismissed from the company.

The fruit and chocolate chunk cake, iced with pink frosting, was emblazoned with an offensive message about her former place of work, according to The New Zealand Herald.

Photographs of the rude cake, which was taken to a dinner party of 10 friends, were uploaded to social media.

Ms. Hammond’s former employers took a screenshot of the offending confectionary and circulated it to recruitment agencies and to Ms. Hammond’s new employer with a request that she be sacked, the New Zealand Herald reported.

Ms. Hammond claimed her former employer had invaded her privacy, and she represented herself to argue that point at a human rights tribunal.

This week the tribunal ruled that, on the balance of probability, NZCU’s actions did invade Ms. Hammond’s privacy by disclosing personal information about her.

Ms. Hammond was awarded damages for humiliation, loss of dignity and injury to feelings, for lost income and pecuniary loss.

The tribunal also ordered NZCU Baywide to retract emails about the dispute and issue an apology — a serving of humble pie?

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