Make your move, Sir Rod
- 17 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Stories of employees getting ambushed and stitched up in employment mediations are nothing new to us, in fact Leighton Associates was born of a couple of such stitch-ups and subsequent enforcement action (Tauranga City Council v Brown aka ALA v ITE, Victoria University of Wellington v Sawyer, both 2017), and kept busy by several since.
Today we have been treated to the spectacle of a glorious desecration of an employment NDA (non-disclosure agreement), that was executed in 2025 presumably under Section 149 of the Employment Relations Act 2000. Sir Rod Drury, New Zealander of the Year (for now), was the beneficiary of that NDA. But not anymore.
The most common use of s 149 is to facilitate a confidential settlement of a personal grievance to avoid costlier litigation. It could be an employee who claims they have been unjustifiably dismissed, or is still working but has been unjustifiably disadvantaged and perhaps the most pragmatic way to resolve that dispute is to negotiate an exit package.
Briton Zelda Perkins was paid £75,000 for her silence by sex offender and currently jailed movie mogul Harvey Weinstein in 1998, and famously brought the NDA before a parliamentary inquiry in 2017. We uploaded that to our blogsite in January 2021.
A few days later, UK Solicitors Regulation Authority, similar to the NZ Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal, halted its investigation into Weinstein’s solicitor (who had drafted the NDA more than two decades earlier) on mental health grounds.
Back to Drury - he is not accused of any criminal act as far as we know, but as investigative journalist Paula Penfold has reported, Drury’s personal chef has revealed that she signed an employment NDA last year.
The title speaks for itself.
Former Sir Rod Drury employee speaks despite confidential settlement: 'He kissed me over 50 times' | Stuff (6 May 2026)
We’ve heard public sector employers and their counsel bang on about the “sanctity and integrity” of an employment settlement agreement, sometimes called a Record of Settlement (RoS). Some RoS have a non-disparagement clause too.
In late-2024 we wrote about a real estate agent being sued twice in the Employment Relations Authority, by her ex-employer and competitor, for breaching the non-disparagement clause. Both times the enforcing employer won a lowball amount and looked vindictive to any outsider. I have spoken to the target Ms Brown, who found the enforcement to be annoying, but an acceptable cost of doing business in a competitive market.
Northland Real Estate agent sued for disparagement by ex-employer, twice (29 November 2024)
Will Drury enforce against Ms Ruddle, seeking a penalty, damages and costs if she comes back to New Zealand?
We dare you to, Sir Rod. We double dare you.
Tristam Price
Editor