Charities and even unions have begun wielding NDAs to cow and silence

Unions exist first and foremost to protect employee rights, and there are many examples of where they’ve done that well. But it turns out unions don’t always make for the best, or even adequate, employers themselves.

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In last week’s parliamentary debate on the use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) by employers to cover up abuse and discrimination in the workplace, Labour MP Louise Haigh noted unions’ use of NDAs to hush up appalling behaviour.

One example is the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA), which has used NDAs to try to prevent former female employees from publicly making allegations of sexual harassment against Manuel Cortes, (the general secretary). At the time, a 2023 review by Helena Kennedy KC later found that there had been “appalling incidents” and “leadership and management failings” at the TSSA in relation to sexual harassment and that Cortes’s behaviour around women was such an “open secret” that women joining the organisation were warned never to be alone with him. It is not just unions. Haigh has also used her parliamentary privilege to talk about the case of an ITN employee with functional neurological disorder who experiences seizures and blackouts. He experienced severe bullying and discrimination from his managers, including being forced to apologise to those who had witnessed a seizure, and being accused of lying about his disability. He took ITN to an employment tribunal; the company eventually settled but forced him to sign an NDA as part of the agreement.

Layla Moran, another MP pushing for change, has raised the case of a female ITN employee who was demoted after ending an abusive sexual relationship with an older male editor; after she complained, she was suspended without pay and told she could not talk to anyone but the police about it; in settling, ITN got her to sign an ultimately unenforceable NDA that gagged not just her but her parents, her friends and her partners, from talking about what had happened to her.