New Zealand's most expensive cake

New Zealand's most expensive cake

There is plenty of nervousness around posting photos of a girls' night out downing tequilas on Facebook. God forbid anyone tag you in them and you lose out on your dream job because an employer googles you and sees a Chippendale in nothing but a bow-tie licking salt from your décolletage and inserting a slice of lime into your mouth using his tongue.

However, Karen Hammond put her foot down, had a good rootle through the Facebook privacy rules, represented herself in court and won her case against former employer NZ Credit Union Baywide. The Human Rights Tribunal awarded Hammond a whopping $168,000 for the humiliation, loss of earnings and stress.

Karen Hammond had been dismissed from her job with NZCU. She baked a cake, iced it with 'NZCU Fuck You' and posted it on Facebook, selecting her privacy settings to show just her friends.

NZCU got hold of the picture and emailed it to Hammond's current employer as well as a number of recruitment agencies, also allegedly suggesting she should be fired and not employed again.

She says the case has consumed her life for three years, with the financial impact resulting in her moving from the region to find employment and a huge amount of grief for her family.

Whilst it is never advisable to post incendiary comments about former employees on Facebook, NZCU would have probably have done well to just let the picture slide down the newsfeed and disappear. Hammond's sister yesterday posted on the Hawke's Bay Today Facebook page 'Proud of you sis! You stood up for your rights and studied so hard to represent yourself as no lawyer would take your case on! You showed them sis and I am soooooo proud of you! Shove that down ya cake hole NZCU....'

Jenny Rudd spent 6 years as a trader in London before returning to New Zealand in 2007 making the transition from numbers to letters by heading up the content team at MOSH, New Zealand's leading social media agency.

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