To Governor Kathy Hochul, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, and the members of the New York State Legislature:

We call on state leaders to enact legislation prohibiting employers from using nondisclosure and nondisparagement agreements to silence workers about workplace misconduct. 

No worker should be threatened with a lawsuit or the loss of a settlement for speaking up about discrimination, assault, harassment, retaliation, wage violations, unsafe conditions, bullying, abuse, or other harmful workplace experiences. Yet in New York today, these agreements conceal misconduct, rather than correct it.

New York law currently restricts confidentiality provisions in settlements involving discrimination, harassment, or retaliation unless confidentiality is described as the worker’s preference. This provision does nothing to eliminate the imbalance between an employer controlling the settlement money and a worker who may be unemployed, traumatized, or unable to afford prolonged litigation. When meaningful compensation is available only if a worker accepts secrecy, the resulting “preference” is not freely chosen.

New Yorkers recognize this problem. A Morning Consult survey of 1,004 New York voters found that:

• 68% of New York voters support outlawing NDAs connected to workplace abuse, harassment or discrimination.
• Support crosses party lines: 73% of Democrats, 63% of Republicans and 63% of independents favor such a prohibition.
• 56% oppose companies preventing workers who experience or witness misconduct from discussing it inside or outside the workplace.
• 49% believe state leaders should do more to protect people from workplace discrimination and sexual harassment, compared with only 5% who believe the state should do less.

Workers cannot protect one another when contracts forbid them from comparing experiences. Applicants may accept jobs without knowing about documented hazards or repeat offenders. Managers and institutions can avoid meaningful reform because the people who know what happened face severe consequences for speaking honestly about their experiences.

The law should protect workers, witnesses and the public, not a company’s ability to suppress damaging information. Ending coercive NDAs would not force anyone to tell their story and workers who want privacy would remain free to say nothing. The difference is that the decision would belong to the worker, not to the employer with greater financial and legal resources. Notably, his reform would not prevent businesses from protecting genuine confidential information. Product designs, customer lists, or trade secrets are legitimate subjects for confidentiality. Discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and abuse are not.

We ask New York’s elected leaders to advance this legislation without further delay. Workers should never have to surrender their voices to obtain compensation, leave an unsafe workplace, or protect their careers.

Pass a comprehensive ban on NDAs and nondisparagement clauses that conceal toxic workplace conduct. Let New Yorkers speak about what happened to them — if, when, and how they choose.