Your cart is empty.
Your cart is empty.
Advocacy
Stop Silencing Women & Workers
Restrict & Regulate Non-Disclosure Agreements
Workplaces should be safe places for all – free of sexual harassment, discrimination and bullying and violence. Yet, one in three Australian workers have experienced workplace sexual harassment in the last five years. This is far too common.
Sexual harassment occurs in every industry, at every level and in every location. To tackle workplace sexual harassment, we must challenge outdated gender stereotypes and unfair power imbalances in the workplace.
We are campaigning for changes to restrict and regulate the use of Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) in workplace sexual harassment cases. By ensuring victim-survivors have the choice to be able to tell their story, we can create stronger accountability and positive change in workplaces.
Get involved in the campaign
Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) are legal contracts which require someone to keep secret the details of the harassment they experienced, often for the rest of their life. In sexual harassment matters, victims often feel like they have no choice but to sign an NDA to resolve their complaint.
It is difficult to stop sexual harassment if the people who experience it are prevented from talking about it. Employers and their lawyers are routinely silencing and further harming victim-survivors by compelling them to sign NDAs. NDAs hide systemic problems in workplaces and discourage positive action for change by protecting those responsible. Many experts now agree that blanket NDAs in sexual harassment and discrimination settlements are harmful and counterproductive.
It is not uncommon to read news stories about celebrity perpetrators who have used NDAs to cover up their abuse. However, it is less well known that NDAs are regularly used by powerful employers in Australia against ordinary workers.
75% of legal professionals have never reached a sexual harassment settlement without strict NDA terms.
59% of people who experienced sexual harassment in the workplace said their harasser had also targeted others. Sexual harassment is a collective issue, but NDAs stop workers from being able to take action together.
The overuse and misuse of NDAs prevent workers, the public and governments from knowing important information about employers, workplaces and the high occurrence of sexual harassment.
The Project / 29 July 2024
This TV segment features Working Women’s Centre SA clients, and ‘Let's Talk About Confidentiality: NDA use in sexual harassment settlements since the Respect@Work Report’ authors Sharmilla Bargon and Regina Featherstone. Viewing time 6:24mins.
Watch
Positive Duty
Employers now have a legal responsibility – called Positive Duty – to proactively ensure their workplaces are safe places to work, free from sexual harassment, discrimination and unlawful conduct. The blanket use of NDAs in sexual harassment matters could prevent workplaces from meeting their Positive Duty obligations.
Alongside other recent beneficial changes to laws to combat sexual harassment in Australian workplaces, NDAs need to be regulated and restricted. We have the opportunity to do this in South Australia.
The Working Women’s Centre SA is calling on the South Australian Government to legislate to restrict and regulate the application of NDAs in our state, so that their overuse and misuse is stopped.
Making this change would:
Changing the laws would build on existing Australian Government and South Australian Government commitments to Respect@Work and ensuring safer workplaces.
Join the call to stop silencing women and workers through NDAs. Help eradicate sexual harassment and discrimination in our workplaces. Sign up to be involved.
NDA law reform is happening in Victoria, and around the world.
The Victorian Government have committed to introduce legislation to restrict the use of NDAs in sexual harassment cases, in 2025. This follows the Victorian Ministerial Taskforce on Workplace Sexual Harassment recommending restrictions to the use of NDAs in workplace sexual harassment cases. The Victorian reform process has been championed by the Victorian Trades Hall.
Ireland’s new Maternity Protection, Employment Equality and Preservation of Certain Records Act 2024 amends the Employment Equality Act 1998 by restricting the use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) in situations involving allegations of discrimination, victimisation, harassment and sexual harassment. The Act essentially makes NDAs the exception to the rule. Any exempted NDA needs to meet strict requirements.
In the United Kingdom, the Starmer Labour Government’s Employment Rights Bill 2025 includes a provision adding sexual harassment to the list of whistleblowing protections. If enacted, sexual harassment allegations could no longer be silenced using NDAs as they would be protected by the wider ban on using NDAs in whistleblowing situations. Other protections related to NDAs are also in progress.
In the United States, a federal law known as the Speak Out Act (SOA) was passed by the United States Congress in late 2022. It prevents the enforcement of pre-dispute NDAs in cases of sexual assault or harassment. Some eighteen U.S states have prohibited or regulated NDAs, (as have provinces in Canada).
What would effective law reform look like?
for specified circumstances, always at the active instigation of the victim-survivor, without coercion, and with the opportunity for independent legal or industrial advice.
If you would like to read more, you can download our PDF resources here.
Get involved in the campaign
