A Rangiora company has been ordered to pay a penalty of $3000 for disparaging an ex-employee on its Facebook page.

The Employment Relations Authority says when Stephen Duggan left Armaan Dev Enterprises, he reached a signed settlement - with the help of a mediator - one of the terms of which was that the company would not disparage him (other details of the settlement and the reason for his departure were suppressed by the ERA).

But on November 8 last year, he discovered a disparaging comment about his personality, posted to his former employer's Facebook page (the ERA refused to detail the comment).

He alerted the company.

The post was removed about a week later, meaning it had been online for around three weeks.

The disparaging comment was made by Armaan Dev Enterprise's director Amit Gulati, or at least a person using his Facebook account.

Gulati told the ERA that it was his friend - identified only as "M" - who left the comment, not him.

The director had met for a meal with his nephew and "M." They looked at a photo of Duggan on Facebook. Gulati said he was unaware, until it had been online for three weeks, that "M" had subsequently posted about Duggan using his (Gulati's) account.

ERA member Helen Doyle said she could not give weight to this account, because "M" had declined to appear in person.

"I am unable therefore to be satisfied that M and not Mr Gulati posted the comment. I conclude then that it is more likely than not that Mr Gulati posed the comment."

Gulati pleaded that his company was about to go into liquidation.

Doyle acknowledged that it was in financial distress, but said there had been a "deliberate and serious breach" of its settlement with Duggan.

She ordered Armaan Dev Enterprises to pay Duggan $2250 and the ERA $750 in costs