BY CARRIE N. BAKER | Since #MeToo went viral five years ago, 16 states have passed laws blocking employers from requiring employees to sign agreements prohibiting them from speaking out about their experiences of sexual harassment and assault on the job. Now, Congress has created a new national standard prohibiting this behavior.
On Dec. 7, President Biden signed the Speak Out Act, limiting the enforceability of non-disclosure agreements and non-disparagement agreements (NDAs) for sexual harassment and sexual assault disputes.
“Going forward, pre-dispute NDA’s will no longer be able to silence survivors of sexual assault or harassment,” said Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii), who led the effort to pass the law, along with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Reps. Lois Frankel (D-Fla.) and Cheri Bustos (D-Ill). (Hear directly from Frankel and Bustos in their joint Ms. op-ed on the victory.)
The Speak Out Act will prohibit the use of pre-dispute NDAs between employers and current, former and prospective employees, as well as independent contractors. The law also prohibits the use of pre-dispute NDAs between businesses and customers.
The act preserves the option for survivors to enter into an NDA as part of a settlement of a dispute if they choose and allows states to enact additional protections beyond the Speak Out Act.
“Forced NDAs punish the survivor and protect the perpetrator who is set free to abuse others again and again,” said a bipartisan group of Congress members after President Biden signed the act.
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