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Ministers should hold a consultation on the use of non-disclosure agreements in labor disputes, after a newspaper has been prevented from appointing a businessman accused of having a job. to have silenced alleged victims of sexual and racial harassment.
Theresa May says to the communes that it was important for the government to tighten the use of NDAs by stating that "it is clear that some employers are using them in an unethical way".
The Prime Minister was speaking after the Daily Telegraph reported that an unidentified "business man" had used NDAs to pay former employees who had accused him of Bullying, sexual harassment and racial abuse, in which he described as "a #MeToo British scandal".
The court of appeal on Tuesday granted a temporary injunction preventing the newspaper from identifying the man, thus overturning an earlier ruling by the High Court that it was in the public interest to do so. According to the decision, in five cases, "substantial regulations" were made with employees under confidentiality agreements.
The case will now be heard in full before the High Court.
The Telegraph said its reporters had talked to more than two dozen former business employees and had heard accusations of bullying, sexual harassment and beatings. against the staff.
"Non-disclosure agreements can not stop whistleblowers, but it's clear that some employers are using them unethically," May told MPs on the Prime Minister's questions. She said the government would launch its consultation "to seek to improve the regulation of non-disclosure agreements and make it absolutely explicit to employees when a non-disclosure agreement does not apply and when It can not be applied ".
She answered a question from Labor's Jess Phillips, who said, "It seems our laws allow rich, powerful men to do what they want as long as they pay for it to be quiet."
NDAs have been closely monitored since serious allegations of sexual abuse last year against former US producer Harvey Weinstein triggered the global #MeToo movement. Zelda Perkins, a former producer assistant, decided last year to break a NDA to expose how he had used choking contracts to silence victims of harassment.
Addressing Members of the Women's and Equalization Selection Committee in March, Ms. Perkins said that the deal she had been forced to sign by Miramax was "morally helpless", while Weinstein's alleged victims had to sign their own gagging contracts in his presence.
In its report, released in July, the committee said that NDAs "must be better controlled and regulated" and that lawyers must be held accountable for their actions if they use them in an unethical manner.
Maria Miller, chair of the committee, told the Guardian that May's promise to move quickly on the issue was "really welcome". "The news story this week has really shed new light on how NDAs can be used repeatedly to cover up alleged wrongdoing … If an NDA had not been used in this case , so maybe the directors and the board the company involved could have taken steps to avoid this repeated behavior, and that's what's so worrying about how the NDAs are being misused. "
Miller said that she would personally like to see the NDA banned in layoff agreements. The world of work is committed to banning NDAs that prevent employees from disclosing any discrimination, harassment or victimization.
There had been speculation that Phillips was considering using parliamentary privilege to name the businessman, but she stated that she did not know her identity or the consent of her business. alleged victims. "Even if I would absolutely, I would not fear to do it, it's not my own fear that worries me," she told the Guardian. "Powerful men with a lot of money will not come after me.
"I never said I would name this person, I said that he should be named. It is someone who uses the law, or the spirit of the law, to protect themselves from the laws. That is David and Goliath, and if the parliament is for something it is, it is to act on behalf of David. "
The legal profession itself is concerned about the way NDAs are used; Earlier this year, the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the regulator in England and Wales, warned its members that there was no justification for the improper use of these agreements.
Adele Edwin-Lamerton, a lawyer specializing in labor law and discrimination at Pattinson & Brewer, said she thought the contracts were likely to abuse.
"I think the agreements could be clearer in their current wording, [in terms of] what someone is and is not allowed to do without breaking this agreement. They simply do not have to be used in cases like this, because they give the impression that people can not reveal what happened to them without breaking a contract.
"The problem is that you can not hide an illegal activity with an NDA, but it's not clear to everyone. So I think it's great that this movement brought this idea to light. "
David Taylor, a partner at Hanne & Co and a lawyer specializing in employment and regulatory law, a member of the Bar Council, questioned the Prime Minister's use of the term "unethical". "A lawyer has a duty to his client. If a customer asks you to do something that is not illegal, it can be unpleasant but not illegal. In this case, you also have the professional duty to act in accordance with these instructions. "
However, he agreed that such agreements could be clearer by stating, for example, that the NDAs between employer and employee are inapplicable if the employee has not been allowed to obtain his own legal advice.
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