Employers will be banned from using non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to silence staff who try to speak out about sexual harassment and bullying.
A Government amendment to the workers’ rights bill will introduce a law to automatically invalidate NDAs where employees make an accusation of harassment or abuse.
Ministers said the move would redress the power imbalance between employees and bosses who abuse their staff and get away with it through the misuse of gagging clauses.
The protection will apply to both victims of harassment and co-workers who try to blow the whistle on abusive behaviour.
Employment rights minister Justin Madders told The i Paper the government wanted to “rebalance the power relationship” between employers and their staff in the workplace.
He said: “Serial episodes of harassment and discrimination are being allowed to continue because victims are being silenced by the misuse of NDAs. So we think that there is a need to rebalance the power relationship, to actually give victims the free choice to speak out, should they wish to.”
The amendment will be added to the Employment Rights Bill, currently going through the House of Lords.
It marks a victory for the organisation Can’t Buy My Silence, founded by Zelda Perkins, the former PA to Harvey Weinstein who in 2017 helped expose the Hollywood mogul as a serial predator, and has campaigned for years for a change in the law.
Ms Perkins was made to sign an NDA years earlier when she tried to report him for an alleged sexual assault of a colleague.
Several MPs have also campaigned for the government to act, including Labour’s Louise Haigh and Sarah Russell and the Lib Dem MP Layla Moran.
Madders said the new law would also “put more onus on employers to deal with the perpetrators in the first place”, adding there was often a pattern of behaviour where a woman is harassed at work, made to sign an NDA and the perpetrator was free to repeat the behaviour.
The minister added: “They’re often men in powerful positions in companies, they are able to carry on with impunity. And we think that that clearly is the wrong type of thing to be happening in any workplace.
“So we want women to have that opportunity to speak up about harassment at work, and we hope that that will mean we will see less of this in future.”
Madders said he did not believe businesses would object to the new law and in fact would see it as a “welcome development” to improve workplaces.
Wide range of protections
He added: “I don’t think we’re going to get any employers who think that harassment or discrimination in the workplace is acceptable.
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“We are facing a world where most businesses absolutely understand the importance of having people feeling safe and secure in the workplace.”
The ban on the misuse of NDAs will form part of a wide-ranging package of greater protections for workers under the Employment Rights Bill.
Madders said these workers’ rights changes were popular with the public and would “make a real difference to millions of people’s lives”, adding: “I think this is really going to be one of the success stories of this Labour Government.”
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