An employee who breached the confidentiality provision of a mediation has been penalised $750 by the Employment Relations Authority but still gets to keep their mediated settlement.

The mediation had resulted in the employee’s dismissal being replaced with his resignation and a small cash settlement plus some costs reimbursements.  When the employee returned from the mediation to his new workplace he advised that he had won his case and was not sacked and had received a payment.

All of these statements were held to breach the obligation to keep the settlement confidential.  The $750 payment is payable to the Crown not his ex-employer so they have lost the confidentiality of settlement and ended up paying the employee his agreed payment (before they knew of the breach).

If you need help getting your settlements worded to cover breaches of confidentiality with enough teeth to make them meaningfully enforceable give me a call on (04) 473 6850.