The Channel 4 News Women Are Just The Tip Of The Iceberg - Have Women of Colour Been Disproportionately Silenced via NDAs for Years?
By Olivia Leahy - Writer for Speak Out Revolution
The recent exposure of the misuse of NDAs at Channel 4 News has lately been making headlines - and rightly so. The media giants, owned by ITN, have silenced many of their female employees and ex-employees surrounding issues such as gender discrimination in pay, harassment and bullying, using non disclosure agreements (NDAs). Not only has this ruined the careers and negatively impacted the mental health of many Channel 4 News women, but the use of NDAs to cover up a culture of harassment is truly unjustifiable.
But what has occurred at Channel 4 News is not unusual; it is entirely indicative of the international abuse of NDAs to silence women and those discriminated against in every workplace and industry. NDA misuse is a global miscarriage of justice that needs to be brought to light and corrected. Especially for women of colour who, according to our insights, are disproportionately silenced via NDAs in relation to allegations of sexual harassment and racism. In the words of our founder Marie Hemingway, “existing legislation perpetuates inequality in our workplaces by silencing targets of workplace harassment and bullying, which is why Speak Out Revolution are proud data partners to the Can’t Buy My Silence campaign. We are amplifying the voices of men and women who are anonymously speaking out to ban the misuse of NDA’s in cases of workplace harassment and bullying.”
Channel 4 News Is Not Exceptional
The silencing of women at Channel 4 News is indefensible; these events are as a result of a climate of fear at the major news outlet.In a petition to release Channel 4 News women from their NDAs (which can be found here), the founder of Pregnant Then Screwed and the initiator of the petition Joeli Brearley, revealed that NDA’s “silence those who encounter severe discrimination and harrassment in exchange for a payoff, and they ensure the perpetrator can never be exposed for their actions. Women are often bullied into signing them and feel they have no other option.” But this is a widespread issue, and the events that have taken place at Channel 4 News are unfortunately not exceptional. NDAs are used in every industry to silence those who have been victims of gender discrimination, workplace bullying and inexcusable harrassment. NDAs stop the exposure of such things and protect those in the wrong. From the #MeToo Movement, to the uncovering of NDA misuse in technology companies, improper NDA use is sweeping through every industry, and thousands of victims are being left in its wake.
We have heard a lot recently about NDA misuse in television and film industries, with the Channel 4 News women and the #MeToo Movement, but other industries are equally affected but not as often discussed. According to a study carried out by TeamBlind Inc., 15% of the surveyed workers employed by technology companies had been silenced from speaking out about important issues by NDAs. The hospitality industry is similarly affected. In 2018 the President’s Club Dinner scandal was leaked; as reported by Croner Group Limited, “hospitality workers suffered a night of sexual harrassment at the hands of the guests they were waiting on, and were asked to sign NDAs prior to the dinner in an effort to secure their silence.” Unjust silencing through NDAs is as widespread as an issue can get and they disproportionately affect women and underrepresented groups.
Women of colour are disproportionately affected by silencing via an NDA, according to our insights which you can read below, as the result of formally reporting discriminatory treatment in the workplace. Just last year Pinterest came under fire after a young, black, female employee revealed that both her and a woman on her team, who was black and Japanese American, were being paid less than what their job descriptions indicated - a salary disparity of $64,000 annually. These women were silenced from speaking out for years because of the signing of an NDA; but they finally broke out of that last year via a lawsuit and revealed all. Everyday, women of colour across the world are silenced via an NDA because of racism, sexism or sexual harrassment - and the stats are made clear in our insights.
Speak Out Revolution Insights
Speak Out Revolution insights collected via our live Speak Out Survey (which you can access here), show that NDAs are being misused across all company levels in many organisations. Our insights further expose the gender bias in NDA signing and the consequential mental health effects experienced by those who are forced to sign NDAs:
Women are more likely to be silenced via an NDA, with 28% of women who formally report their unfair treatment at work reporting they have signed one (12% stating they cannot answer the question for legal reasons).
95% of those who report signing an NDA experience a negative impact on their mental health.
The mental health impact cannot be overlooked. For a former employee of Channel 4 News who spoke to the Guardian, “the experience left me feeling gagged and helpless and unable to turn a page in my life. I think that Channel 4 News employees believe in free speech and losing the ability to talk about what happened to me has been extremely traumatising.”
What is also important to raise here is the intersectionality of the issue of NDAs; the race, ethnicity, age and disabilities of a woman hugely affects the rate at which NDAs are signed. It must be emphasised here, that data in this space is immensely difficult to collect, and thus the problems persist, as they are kept hidden.We want to expose the intersectionality of this issue, which is why we are sharing our early analysis on our data. We invite everyone to share their experiences so that we can commission more detailed academic research. With this in mind, our insights reveal that of those women who reported unfair treatment, and who subsequently signed an NDA that:
Women between 18-24, and those over 55 are more likely than any other age category to have signed an NDA, with 33% of 18-24-year-olds, and 43% of over 55-year-olds being silenced.
In NDA use over sexual harassment allegations, our insights reveal that 29% of women reported having signed an NDA, in comparison to 18% of men. This indicates that sexual harassment experienced by women drives up the average rate of signing an NDA, which is what makes it more likely that women will end up with an NDA.
Women of colour are disproportionately affected by silencing via an NDA as a consequence of formally reporting unfair treatment in their workplaces. Our insights suggest it is far more likely Black African women will report having signed an NDA (75%), compared to their White British/ Irish counterparts (28%).
Can we eradicate ageism, sexism and racism if we continue to disproportionately silence those impacted? Probably not.
If you have been intimidated into signing an NDA, felt unable to say no to an NDA, or been forced into signing one, you can join the community of people speaking out by adding your experience anonymously to the Speak Out Dashboard today, here.
Universities Pledge
Speak Out Revolution insights show that misuse of NDAs in Higher Education is alarmingly high, with both students and staff who report sexual harassment and assault, workplace bullying and racism, amongst other issues, being silenced in 50% of instances. A recent pledge has been made by many highly regarded institutions to stop the silencing of victims through NDAs, which has been published through the brilliant campaign Can’t Buy My Silence. Stay tuned for our next blog post to find out more.
Speak Out Revolution
Speak Out Revolution is an award-winning non-profit, founded in 2020, on a mission to cancel the culture of silence on workplace harassment and bullying. They provide a platform for targets of non-inclusive behaviours at work to safely speak out and present collective insights in the Speak Out Dashboard so everyone can drive positive change for truly inclusive working.
2. https://www.teamblind.com/blog/index.php/2018/09/04/15-percent-of-tech-workers-silenced-by-an-nda/
3. https://croner.co.uk/resources/contracts-documentation/future-of-ndas/
4. https://time.com/5947561/pinterest-gender-discrimination-racism/
5. This figure applies only to those who said that they could not answer for legal reasons.
7. It must be highlighted, however, that these figures are the ages these women were when they reported an acknowledgement of signing an NDA - we are assuming that their experiences were recent, but of course, not all of them will have been.