Whose interest?

It is a sad state of affairs that in today's world, especially education, nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) have developed from agreements genuinely used to maintain trade secrets to documents serving to primarily protect management by covering up workplace wrongdoing.

This is commonplace despite guidelines such as these, found on the ACAS website:

A non-disclosure agreement should not be used:

• to cover up inappropriate behaviour or misconduct, especially if there's a risk of it happening again
• to avoid addressing disputes or problems
• if it could cause serious moral or ethical issues
• if it could cause any other negative outcomes or effects

I chanced upon an article online which looks in more detail at the implications of nondisclosure agreements. Here are some extracts: 

"NDAs are supposed to prevent people from sharing technical secrets—trade secrets,” said Kim Scott, author and co-founder of Radical Candor. “They were not supposed to be used as a way to hide wrongdoing. And yet, that is how they’re being used." (...)

NDAs and non-disparagement agreements often prevent employees from speaking out about workplace abuse, discrimination, or unethical practices.

When paired with forced arbitration—where employees are required to settle disputes in private rather than through the court system—the result is a system that favors corporations over individuals. (...)

It prevents employees from warning others, advocating for change, or even seeking emotional closure from their experiences. Worse, it enables repeat offenders—allowing bad actors to continue mistreating employees without consequences.

The full article can be found here.

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Another online article does at least offer some hope in this area; if not for now, then for the future. Here are some extracts:

All NDAs which try to prevent a protected disclosure are void and unenforceable. This applies in England, Wales, and Scotland. (...)

Proposals for Reform

The Employment Rights Bill contains a major reform which makes NDAs with a worker void if they prevent allegations or disclosures about harassment or discrimination. The ban also covers NDAs about the employer's response to the harassment/discrimination or the allegation/disclosure. The drafting is wide enough to cover disclosures about conduct by third parties, as well as by the employer and fellow workers.

There is power to make regulations on “excepted agreements” where the ban does not apply, which is likely to include where the NDA was requested by the employee and may also include “cooling off” and other provisions. There will be consultation about the reforms and there is no implementation date as yet.

The Victims and Courts Bill contains plans to extend the ban on NDAs for victims of criminal conduct, by removing the requirements for the disclosure to be made to certain people for specified purposes. As with the Employment Rights Bill, the ban will not apply to an excepted agreement (to be defined in regulations).

Food for thought...

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