Can't Buy My Silence UK
Happy Christmas to all 🎄
Dear Friends, Supporters, Allies and Donors,
As the end of the year approaches we want to share the progress since our last update in June, just to let you know that we’re here, trucking away, inching bit by bit closer to our goal to outlaw abusive NDAs. We also had our THIRD birthday..
If you would like to support our work at this crucial moment you can now do so via our newsletter or by directly donating 👇👇👇
You might have noticed… 🔍
If you’ve been on our website recently (click here if you haven’t in a while) you may have noticed we’ve made a bit of a split. As our campaign continues to expand and grow on both sides of the Atlantic we decided it was about time we had a dedicated homepage for each.
Of course we’re still work besties and still sharing our biggest pages (legislation we’re looking at you) but it should now be easier to find exactly what info you’re looking for in the exact country you’re looking for it.
We’ve also now got an allocated space for all our podcasts so you don’t miss a thing.
CBMS legislative work 🎢
We have been snapping at the ankles of MPs as our high hopes for Labour action are tarnishing. Zelda has met with cross party allies and MP’s including Caroline Nokes (Deputy speaker), Layla Moran (Lib Dem), Baroness Harman (Labour), Jess Phillips (Under secretary of State for safeguarding & violence against women & girls) and Under secretary of State for Business Justin Madders. More coming shortly with Anneliese Dodds (Minister of State for Women and Equalities) and Bridget Phillipson (Secretary of State for Education) to make sure the Government upholds its promises.
CBMS gave substantial evidence to the Employment Rights Bill Committee which is currently debating the reform of the Bill along with an amendment to restrict the use of NDAs. If this goes through our work is nearly done….fingers crossed.
In August we learnt that you can never count your chickens…even once you have received Royal Assent.. The new Labour govt put the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act on hold the day before it came into action. This means that our landmark amendment banning NDAs in HE is now ~in limbo~ however we choose to look at the positives of which there were two: The Government and Jess Phillips reached out to CBMS personally to promise that they would action this amendment elsewhere in legislation and secondly..
In September the Office for Students officially regulated on NDA use in universities, banning them from being used in cases of harassment or sexual misconduct. This change empowers students across England to seek justice without being silenced and protects the action the halted legislation would have created. The OfS will still be promoting the CBMS pledge which covers staff too and it is essential that the universities that are yet to sign the pledge still do.
In October the Worker Protection Act (2024) came into force. This important amendment to the Equality Act places an active duty on employers to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace, including from third parties, marking a significant advance in safeguarding employee rights. The EHRC will be auditing companies on this so if your organisation wants to show its proactivity, make sure you’ve signed up to our business pledge and be ahead of the game.
In Ireland, Senator Lynn Ruane’s amendment to the Employment Equality Act passed the Seanad in October and was signed into law by President Micheal D Higgins. Under this Bill, provisions to all but ban the use of NDAs have been enacted, victims of workplace abuse, harassment and discrimination will still be able to have confidentiality in a settlement, so long as the agreement is made at their request and meets certain other conditions. This is the FIRST law of its kind in Europe and we are so proud to have been part of this.
This autumn the governing body of the Trade Unions Congress voted in the motion that “All unions must ensure the use of NDAs or settlement agreements is in line with TUC and Acas best practice guidance. They must not be misused in cases of sexual harassment, or any other form of bullying, harassment, or discrimination, or as an alternative to carrying out robust investigations”. This is a massive step for unions throughout the country and means that all affiliated unions must uphold this action. This is mostly due to the amazing work of CBMS ally Nikki Pound, TUC Women's Policy Officer, #MeTU and the This Is Not Working Alliance through which we have been working hard to improve the standard of trade unions and their treatment of women.
Out & About Advocacy 🪂
London 📍
DWF Group roundtable: Zelda partnered with Tracey Groves, Kate Meadowcroft, and Nicki Eyre for an enlightening workshop, where they examined the new sexual harassment duties on businesses by the Workers Protection Act and considered with the attending heads of HR and Legal services how businesses can step up to meet these challenges.
Manchester 📍
Beyond The Music: Zelda joined inspiring advocates, including Jen Smith, Ni Maxine, Frances Barber Shillito, and Dr. Diljeet Bhachu, at this dynamic festival to highlight how NDAs are preventing the music industry truly becoming a safer place for women. This event was one of the first proper introductions for the Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority (CIISA) who CBMS have been consulting for since the beginning of their formation. CIISA aims to improve standards of behaviour across the creative industries and to prevent and tackle all forms of bullying and harassment.Dublin
IBA Global Professional Ethics Symposium. It was a great opportunity to speak at the International Bar Associations event. The panel discussed "Zealous v abusive lawyering: where is the fine line between doing ‘the best for the client’ and abusing the weaker party?" and it was good to ask some hard questions…
Munich 📍
European Compliance & Ethics Conference: Zelda addressed compliance professionals in Munich, discussing ethical approaches to NDAs and the atmosphere of learning, improvement and sharing information filled us with optimism for the changes that are creating better working environments.Online 💻
LINEE Conference: hosted by Keystone Law, Zelda shared insights alongside an esteemed panel of international lawyers on the ethics of abusive NDAs and what responsibility lawyers play in these deals. There were great examples of how legislation abroad is actually effecting things. A notable example was that in California where NDAs are off the table in cases of sexual harassment, this has actually improved negotiations and there is no issue about confidentiality being linked to payment. This supports our data which show that settlement agreements have increased by 9% in states banning NDAs going against lawyers belief that removing confidentiality would chill settlements. WATCH HEREBECTU Webinar: (Broadcasting, Entertainment, Communications and Theatre Union) Zelda spoke on a panel of creative industry leaders to discuss sexual harassment in the sector and the hugely important work that CIISA is doing to mitigate this: You can watch the full webinar here
Awards!
Woman of Influence Award: It was a huge honour for Zelda and her work to be recognised amongst so many other incredible group of women. Thank you to Baroness Sandy Verma and a big congratulations to Zelda’s fellow awardees, Emma Pinchbeck FEI, Fatima Whitbread, Rachel Baker, Nicola Careem, Leila McKenzie-Delis, Michelle T. Davies (née Thomas), Radhika Nayar, and Aaliya Sekatawa.
Whistleblower Champion Award : A big thank you to Whistleblowers UK for awarding Zelda this year. WBUK have been great allies to CBMS since day one and have worked our NDA policy into their whistleblowing bill.
NDA misuse still rife…
Since June we’ve continued to see revelations surface surrounding abuse, discrimination and mistreatment from around the globe - whether from P.Diddy to the Church of England what do all these stories have in common?…..NDAs.
Neil Gaiman’s alleged abuse:
Over the summer Tortoise Media broke the story on acclaimed author Neil Gaiman, with the help of CBMS. Speaking first to two women, and eventually to five in total, who alleged sexual misconduct by Gaiman. Underpinning the stories of abuse and manipulation, a recurrent theme was the NDAs Gaiman used to silence these women and stop anyone from connecting the dots.
Mohamed Al-Fayed’s victims finally listened to:
In September it was revealed that the late Mohamed Al-Fayed used NDAs to shield allegations of harassment and misconduct for years. Fayed’s actions highlight yet again the systemic corruption which allows powerful individuals to exploit NDAs to evade accountability, silence victims and perpetuate cultures of fear. Fayed covered up his sexual abuse by intimidating victims into signing NDAs as well as taking libel action against media outlets that tried to expose him.
Zelda appeared on several news outlets and here on Newsnight alongside Harriet Harman to discuss the need for legislative reform to prevent these abusive systems…
ITN’s damning report on internal complaints:
In October an investigation into ITN precipitated by many of the brave victims we are working with revealed the systemic failings in addressing workplace harassment and discrimination. ITN creates the news for Channel 4, Channel 5 and ITV and the report uncovered that there were serious material failures at ITN and NDAs were used regularly and inappropriately with employees to settle internal complaints, fostering a culture of silence. READ HERE.
Daisy Ayliffe was one of the first people to bravely speak up about this last year and it’s because of the bravery of individuals that organisations are being called to account. We wait with baited breath to see what the outcome of this report will be…
New partners and team mates🙋
We were utterly flabbergasted by an anonymous donation to the campaign specifically to fund emotional and psychological support for victims who come to CBMS weekly - this enabled us to partner up with Dr Naomi Murphy and Octopus Psychology which has been life changing for the victims of NDAs and for all of us who have felt ill equipped to deal with the deep trauma and psychological damage that NDAs create in the people we speak to.
Closer to home, Oscar Bannock Priest has joined the team, supporting Zelda directly in the UK. She now has four hands instead of two so presumably our success rate will double….(no pressure Oscar)
We need YOUR help…..
In the UK it is crunch time as the Employment Rights Bill, recently introduced by Labour, is debated. Can’t Buy My Silence are supporting an amendment to ban the use of abusive NDAs and if we manage to get this amendment through, all employees will be protected and our work will nearly be done (Christmas miracle?). Anyone who would like to push for this please write to your local MP to stress the importance of legislative change. 🙏🙏🙏
Want to give CBMS a Christmas Present? 🎁 A monthly direct debit would make a HUGE difference to us no matter how small. Please do consider hitting the monthly button if you choose to donate…
Donate 💸
Add data to vital survey 🙋🙋♂️
Till next year, and have very happy holidays!
Zelda & team
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