Christchurch PR firm fined for breaching employment settlement

Tracey Chambers and her firm penalised for breach of settlement.

Christchurch public relations consultant Tracey Chambers and her firm have been penalised $3000 for late payment of a settlement with a former employee.

Chambers and her company Chambers Public Relations entered into a record of settlement with Louise Melbourne in November 2018.

Melbourne alleged Chambers breached the settlement by initially paying her only $1000 of a $10,000 agreed sum, according to an ERA determination which did not detail the circumstances of the employment dispute.

Melbourne went to the Authority seeking a compliance order and also issued a statutory demand in the High Court.

Not long after, the money was paid by Chambers and her company via their then solicitors.

However, Melbourne took her case further, claiming Chambers and Chambers Ltd should both pay penalties of $3000. She sought to have $2000 from each penalty awarded to her by the Authority.

In a determination earlier this month, ERA member Andrew Dallas imposed a penalty of $2000 on Chambers Ltd and $1000 for Chambers herself.

Both parties did not oppose the penalty payment and Dallas awarded $2000 to Melbourne and ordered $1000 be paid to the Authority within 14 days.

Commenting on the determination, he said there was significant public interest in resolving employment relationship problems at the lowest possible level.

"A record of settlement is a final, binding and enforceable document," Dallas said.

"For mediated outcomes to be successful, parties need to have confidence that records of settlement will be complied with."

He made no order as to costs, inviting the parties to resolve the matter between them.

Chambers is a crown-appointed director of the Canterbury District Health Board, which has a $1.4 billion budget to manage one of the country's largest capital works programmes.

She is also a director of the Rata Foundation, which manages a $500 million investment fund and distributes around $20 million in grants each year.