Do you know your contractor

A few weeks ago I mentioned about a current case that we have in the Employment Relations Authority at Auckland about a IT person who was taking company data from his employers when he left.

Andrew Eric Simpson is the person, and when he was dismissed from my client, the forensic found confidential data from his three previous employers, and that he had been doing what appeared to be the same from our client. He still remains working in the IT sector working for Prevas Consulting in Auckland. The director of Prevas is a friend of Andy Simpson’s who also acted as a reference when he applied to our client for the position he obtained.

Mr Simpson only came to my clients attention when they read a determination from 2014, ANDREW SIMPSON v IBM NEW ZEALAND LIMITED, File [2014] NZERA Auckland 321.

An interesting part of the determination reads:

[252] After Mr Simpson resigned, IBM had become aware on 30 September 2013 that he had a laptop hard drive which contained a copy of the contents of his IBM laptop. IBM has since been able to manually delete the contents of the backup hard drive.

[253] In addition, Mr Simpson also retained a disc of IBM confidential material until 22 May 2014 when it was returned to IBM. Unfortunately at that stage all the information contained on the disc had been accidentally corrupted.

[254] Mr Simpson was under an obligation to return all confidential material to IBM. He failed to do so in respect of the laptop hard drive until sometime following his leaving the employment of IBM and even then the engagement of a third party by IBM had been necessary in order to access and deal with the data contained on the laptop.

[255] The retention of the disc of IBM confidential information by Mr Simpson was attributed to his requiring the information for the purposes of his personal grievance claim against IBM.

[256] By determination [2014] NZERA Auckland 183 I found the information contained on the disc to be of such a nature as to fall under the obligations contained in clause 21.3 of the Employment Agreement and clause 1 of the Confidentiality Agreement, and ordered that Mr Simpson comply with his obligations as set out in clause 21 of the Employment Agreement and clause 1 of the Confidentiality Agreement. [257] I determine that Mr Simpson breached his obligations as set out in clause 21 of the Employment Agreement and clause 1 of the Confidentiality Agreement by failing to return all company property to IBM on the termination of his employment. 

Mr Simpson seems to have gone from company to company over the years, however, it was the 2014 determination that Mr Simpson had never told to our client that caused them concern.

I suppose what concerns me the most is that Mr Simpson demanded that folders on his company work laptop be returned to him, and although initially agree by my client it was when the transfer was taking so long that they looked at what were in the folders to find prior employers files and the forensic examination confirmed this. One of Mr Simpson's old employers said he had no right to their file, as did the others.

The issue, what can employers do if the employee lies about their background?

Contact us if you have any queries relating to this.