Labour considering ban on use of NDAs

MaggsMcG

Some TV shows wouldn't be as good without a NDA. Plus the rich and famous deserve some privacy and discretion from their employees

Of course, but yet again there is the distinction of these agreement being entered into at the beginning of a contact.

In his career not insisted.

I know someone whose son was training for a job in Local Authority. His mentor took a dislike to him and advised him to look for a different career, found fault with everything he did, and told him they had failed the last trainee. This broke confidentiality. He ended up consulting his union and almost had a breakdown. Was unable to work for four months due to stress. The mentor was disciplined for bullying, and discussing other trainees. He got 5k compensation but had to sign a NDA to get it. He moved to a different Local Authority and is now very successful and progressing insisted career. My friend wonders if the first mentor didn't want him as he's gay but there was no proof. He discussed everything with his family before a NDA was made a condition of compensation so it wasn't much use anyway.

Some TV shows wouldn't be as good without a NDA. Plus the rich and famous deserve some privacy and discretion from their employees

There is a huge difference between signing an NDA at the start of employment, as I did joining the Navy with the Official Secrets Act and being forced to sign one when one is being sacked or forced to resign.

I do understand that some jobs require confidential and business secrets to he kept and not shared with competitors and that is perfectly acceptable, but not being allowed to complain about poor practices, harassment and sheer bad management is completely unacceptable. They have been widely used in both Further and Higher Education to ‘shut up’ whistleblowers who have been paid tiny compensation (or none) for the most obnoxious of work place poor practices

Good idea.

www.howespercival.com/articles/6-april-2024-new-employment-tribunal-compensation-limits/

It seems that Primrose’s friend was unfairly dismissed and only given a small severance package.

Barleyfields

Another firm of solicitors would have been delighted to act for your friend Primrose, and she may well have ended up with more compensation than her employers were offering.

She may, but I understand (not sure about the facts) the initial ceiling is usually the equivalent to redundancy as this is all a tribunal can award.

To take it further would mean a court case and, in the worst circumstances, people are so demoralised by bullying, etc., that they may not be fit to fight such a battle.

This misuse of NDAs is, I think, what the government seek to challenge.

They are certainly used by Councils and as maddyone describes, to protect companies who go down the dismissal road when they actually need to make redundancies, are facing a complaint or to deal with potential whistle-blowing.

This is why I think a simple census of when they are used would be a good starting point.

Another firm of solicitors would have been delighted to act for your friend Primrose, and she may well have ended up with more compensation than her employers were offering.

maddyone

Casdon

I don’t think people sign NDAs in the public sector PoliticsNerd. Others will confirm, but everywhere I ever worked there was a specific confidentiality clause to protect patients and reputation, and a whistleblowing provision.

Unfortunately NDAs are used in the public sector. I know of workplace bullying that has taken place, and the employee/employees being forced to sign an NDA to bring about a settlement, after the bullying was dismissed by the employer. The only way forward would be for that/those employees to go to tribunal, but many are reluctant to do so because of ongoing stress. They just agree to leave, are given a small severance package, and are never to speak of the bullying which has taken place.
I know this has happened.

This sounds exactly like the scenario I described above Maddyone.

Barleyfields. I am almost certain it was called an NDA.

It is shocking that this can happen to employees they just want to get rid of quickly. What chance have you got to clear your name with a firm of solicitors?

Casdon

I don’t think people sign NDAs in the public sector PoliticsNerd. Others will confirm, but everywhere I ever worked there was a specific confidentiality clause to protect patients and reputation, and a whistleblowing provision.

Unfortunately NDAs are used in the public sector. I know of workplace bullying that has taken place, and the employee/employees being forced to sign an NDA to bring about a settlement, after the bullying was dismissed by the employer. The only way forward would be for that/those employees to go to tribunal, but many are reluctant to do so because of ongoing stress. They just agree to leave, are given a small severance package, and are never to speak of the bullying which has taken place.
I know this has happened.

I don’t think that was an NDA Primrose. It was an agreed settlement. It’s not unusual for an agreed settlement to contain a provision that the terms will remain confidential.

I don’t think people sign NDAs in the public sector PoliticsNerd. Others will confirm, but everywhere I ever worked there was a specific confidentiality clause to protect patients and reputation, and a whistleblowing provision.

A friend of mine worked at a Solicitors office. They got rid of several members of staff by accusing them of gross misconduct which was completely untrue. The firm was having financial problems. My friend did not know this until she received a letter accusing her of the same.

Just a couple of weeks before she had had her staff appraisal and it was good. Nothing untoward. She was very shocked, confused and upset when she got the letter. She walked out of work at lunchtime in shock and did not go back. In the evening she spoke to a few former colleagues and read between the lines that others had suffered the same fate.

She knew she could not afford to fight them legally and, as solicitors, she would never beat them. She had a letter from them saying they were prepared to pay her a month or two’s salary and give her a basic reference if she agreed to not discuss this with anybody or take it any further and she had to sign to that effect. I believe this was an NDA. They were getting rid of people rather than pay redundancy money. A dirty trick!

PoliticsNerd

Barleyfields

I have never heard of an NDA being used at the end of a contract. Stable doors and bolting horses come to mind.

Perhaps me using the word "contract" is misleading Barleyfields. I'm thinking of those that are part of the termination of employment. I think those are the first to question.

An NDA would be required at the time of employment, not at the end of it. You either sign it in order to get the job or you don’t get the job. It’s a standard and entirely reasonable requirement for being employed in many areas, depending of course on its wording. It should only seek to prevent disclosure of sensitive commercial information and confidential information.

PoliticsNerd

Sago

In my business we have to use NDA’s.
Our clients could not operate without them.

I would guess these are issued and agreed at the beginning of a contract or project. It would be interesting to know of those used at the end of a contract and whether they employee receives an enhanced severance package.

I would want to know how often a council uses them. Why schools do, etc.

We have NDA’s at discussion stage.

What I an interested in is that in some organisations, NDAs may be presented to employees as a condition for receiving severance packages or as part of the settlement process after complaints of harassment or bullying. By requiring affected individuals to sign an NDA, organisations may prevent them from discussing their experiences or reporting misconduct externally, effectively covering up issues that need to be addressed.

The existence of NDAs can also create a chilling effect within a workplace. Employees may feel discouraged from reporting harassment or bullying if they believe that doing so could lead to legal repercussions or the requirement to sign an NDA that restricts their ability to speak out. This can perpetuate a culture of silence, where issues go unreported and unresolved.

I think this happens most in large organisations such as education, councils, NHS, etc., and those companies under contact to receive money from government based on complex actions to fulfil their part of the contract.

Jaxjacky

I signed one when I worked for IBM, it’s a competitive business.
In my experience PoliticsNerd Councils tended to redact information not for general viewing, or to comply with GDPR, but I retired early in 2016, so it may have changed.
It’s a thin line the LP want to consider, I’ll follow with interest.

Obviously, at least in the first instance, no one should be asking for names, just numbers Jaxjacky.

Barleyfields

I have never heard of an NDA being used at the end of a contract. Stable doors and bolting horses come to mind.

Perhaps me using the word "contract" is misleading Barleyfields. I'm thinking of those that are part of the termination of employment. I think those are the first to question.

I’m sure, keepingquiet, that you understand the importance of an employee who will be privy to confidential information signing an agreement to promise that they will not disclose that information to anyone else unless obliged to do so by a court order. If you refused to sign such an agreement the only inference would be that you would sell your employer’s business secrets, or if say you were a nanny the details of their private life, elsewhere and you simply wouldn’t get the job.

PoliticsNerd

"I would never sign one" keepingquiet

I think that, until we have walked in the shoes of those who have, we cannot know what we would do.

There are plenty of shoes I have never walked in. Maybe it comes to choice but then I am now out of the employment market and glad I never had to sign one during my working life, or indeed ask anyone to sign one.

I'm pretty sure I know what choices I am free to make thankyou.

I signed one when I worked for IBM, it’s a competitive business.
In my experience PoliticsNerd Councils tended to redact information not for general viewing, or to comply with GDPR, but I retired early in 2016, so it may have changed.
It’s a thin line the LP want to consider, I’ll follow with interest.

I have never heard of an NDA being used at the end of a contract. Stable doors and bolting horses come to mind.

Sago

In my business we have to use NDA’s.
Our clients could not operate without them.

I would guess these are issued and agreed at the beginning of a contract or project. It would be interesting to know of those used at the end of a contract and whether they employee receives an enhanced severance package.

I would want to know how often a council uses them. Why schools do, etc.