Ports management disregard for privacy deeply disturbing.

It is deeply dis­turb­ing that Ports of Auck­land is pre­pared to spread con­fid­en­tial inform­a­tion from indi­vidu­al per­son­nel files as part of a PR cam­paign against their work­ers’ cam­paign for secure jobs, the CTU said today.

Fol­low­ing media inter­views giv­en by Ports work­ers, a blog­ger has been pub­lish­ing private inform­a­tion about their employ­ment.

CTU pres­id­ent Helen Kelly said inform­a­tion released on the blog over recent days included detailed inform­a­tion from staff per­son­nel files, which only a few people in the com­pany could real­ist­ic­ally have had access to.

It has included details about a worker’s bereave­ment leave after the death of his wife, Helen Kelly said.

“This amounts to the worst form of cor­por­ate thug­gery.  It is clear to us that Ports of Auck­land is delib­er­ately send­ing inform­a­tion to the blog­ger as part of its PR cam­paign against the work­ers.  It is an obvi­ous attempt to try and intim­id­ate its work­force.”

Oth­er work­ers should be con­cerned that this doesn’t set a new bar for appro­pri­ate beha­viour dur­ing employ­ment nego­ti­ations, she said.

“I would also be inter­ested to hear from oth­er busi­nesses wheth­er they think this sort of beha­viour is appro­pri­ate in nego­ti­ations.”

The Mari­time Uni­on has made a pri­vacy com­plaint to the Ports of Auck­land, and is seek­ing a full apo­logy and an under­tak­ing that no fur­ther con­tact will be made between the Port and the blog­ger.