Women who report sexual harassment or bullying at work are silenced with a gagging order

Hundreds of women reporting sexual harassment or bullying at work are being silenced with gagging orders, the Mail can reveal.

More than one in four people who have been abused in the workplace are asked by their employers to sign ‘non-disclosure agreements’ (NDAs) that prevent them from speaking out in public.

Eight in ten of these people are women, fueling fears that sexism remains widespread.

MPs on the Finance Committee, who recently published a damning study into sexism in the city, are now calling for a ban on silence orders in cases of sexual harassment.

The parliamentary report shows that companies regularly use legally binding contracts to ‘cover up’ abuse and make problems ‘go away’.

Now figures from the Mail – compiled by anonymous whistleblowing website Speak Out Revolution – highlight the use of NDAs and how they disproportionately affect women. The group has recorded 888 cases of workplace harassment and bullying since 2020. Of these, 711 victims were women, or 80 percent.

And 27 percent say they have been forced to sign a confidentiality agreement.

The respondents came from various sectors, including the legal profession and the business community.

Harriett Baldwin, chair of the Finance Committee, warned that these figures could be just the tip of the iceberg.

“The Treasury committee discovered a trend of companies using non-disclosure agreements to steer victims of sexual harassment out of a company while protecting the perpetrator,” she told the Mail.

‘Our research only looked at the financial sector; These figures showing that the problem may be more widespread are extremely worrying,” she added.

Speak Out Revolution also found that women aged 18-24 and those aged 55 and over are more likely to sign non-disclosure agreements, with 33 percent of 18-24 year olds and 43 percent of those aged 55 and over being silenced.

In December, Women’s Minister Kemi Badenoch confirmed that the government was looking for “an elegant solution” to prevent the misuse of NDAs on a wider scale.

Frances Holmes, founder of Speak Out Revolution, said: ‘The government faces a choice: continue to silence harassed women or take action to create safer workplaces.’

The findings also follow a series of recent scandals, including allegations of sexual harassment and assault by women against fund manager Crispin Odey, as well as claims of sexual misconduct allegations at the CBI.

The Finance Ministry committee noted that while there had been some improvement in the city, it warned that progress is still too slow.