The Ports of Auckland is responsible for leaking personal information, including details of bereavement leave, about an employee, the Council of Trade Unions claims.
The Whale Oil blog published a list of 106 leave days under five categories taken by crane driver Cecil Walker from when his former wife was diagnosed with a terminal illness in 2007 until after her death the next year.
It was published a day after Radio New Zealand broadcast criticism by Mr Walker about the impact he feared a proposed new port rostering schedule, since overtaken by plans to contract out 292 port jobs, would have on family life.
Council of Trade Unions (CTU) president Helen Kelly said she had since received a letter written by Ports of Auckland chief executive Tony Gibson letter addressed to Maritime Union (MUNZ) secretary Russell Mayn.
In it Ports of Auckland says it would like to "sincerely apologise to Mr Walker for any distress he may have felt regarding the information released. Upon reflection, we accept the distress this may have caused him, and for that we are very sorry,'' the letter says.
"At the same time, however, I note that the release of information was intended purely as a direct response to Mr Walker's commenting negatively and, in our opinion, unfairly in the public domain about us as his employer and effects on workers' family lives.''
The letter goes on to say that Mr Walker's personal situation regarding his deceased wife was already in the public domain before the leak, and "the information published in the media simply illustrated the lengths to which Ports of Auckland went in order to accommodate Mr Walker's family situation at a sad and stressful time''.
"As long as these types of unbalanced stories, which we consider are damaging to Ports of Auckland, continue to be published at the instigation of MUNZ and certain of our employees, we cannot make the requested undertaking to the extent it seeks to prevent us from putting accurate corrective information in the public domain in response to matters raised by MUNZ and our employees.''
The letter does not explicitly state that Ports of Auckland was responsible for the leak, but Ms Kelly said it was an admission by the company.
"They acknowledged that they released it, they explained, in their terms, why they released it, and regardless of the fact that they clearly agree that it probably breached the Privacy Act - or that's implied in the letter - they don't go on to say that they'll change,'' she told Radio NZ.
"The message was `if you speak out against our plans to dismiss you and replace you then we will release any information we have in any way we like ... regardless of the law'.''
The CTU had handed the letter to the Privacy Commissioner.
The Ports of Auckland declined to comment.
