Local MP and victim of Harvey Weinstein lead Parliamentary debate on end of NDAs

Lee Barron MP Chairs the APPG Modernising Employment Committee whose recent meeting Women in the Workplace welcomed Zelda Perkins, the Founder of ‘Can’t buy my Silence’ and who is calling for the government to change laws surrounding the agreements.

“I was greatly encouraged that on International Women’s Day the APPG on Modernising Employment held a packed session where we could openly debate the crisis in equality facing the UK.” Lee Barron MP said. “We heard from experts, industry, and politicians on how the UK must address this critical issue which is why we invited Zelda to share her story.”

Zelda Perkins has been campaigning since 2017 when she was the first woman to break an NDA, signed decades earlier, with Harvey Weinstein.

She brought the systematic abuse of NDAs to the attention of the British Government and international press, giving evidence at two parliamentary inquiries, which uncovered an epidemic of misuse, and pushing the England and Wales Solicitors Regulatory Authority to take disciplinary action against the lawyers who created her NDA for Weinstein.

“Non-disclosure agreements are contracts that were created to protect trade secrets but when used wrongly become secret settlement contracts used to buy the silence of a victim or whistleblower.” said Lee Barron MP who before entering Parliament was the Regional Secretary of the TUC Midlands.

“They have become the default solution for organisations, corporations and public bodies to settle cases of sexual misconduct, racism, pregnancy discrimination and other human rights violations and this is simply not acceptable.”

“The goal of our campaign is simple.” said Zelda Perkins when she spoke to a packed APPG Meeting at Westminster. “There has to be legislative and regulatory change that will make NDAs unenforceable for anything other than their original purpose – the prevention of sharing confidential business information.”

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Modernising Employment (MODE) is a cross-party group of Members of Parliament and the House of Lords who share an interest in understanding how the UK can become the world’s most attractive labour market, driving growth and levelling the playing field for all, how the UK can become the world’s most attractive labour market and driving growth and levelling the playing field for all.

“The work of the APPG gathers information on how to beneficially modernise employment.” Lee Barron continued. “The use of NDAs has to be changed and our meeting where we heard from a number of people from the world of business and Government is just the start of that work.”

“I’ll be making sure as a committee we work closely with Zelda and her campaign to put further pressure on the Government.” he said.

To find out more about the work of the APPG Modernising Employment Committee please visit www.modeappg.co.uk

To find out more about Zelda Perkins and the campaign group Can’t buy my silence’ please visit www.cantbuymysilence.com