We are seven former Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) staff members who have worked with MCC in Africa and Asia over a period of 24 years. All of us lost our employment after we spoke out about workplace harassment or psychological or emotional abuse. Several of us were also terminated while we were in the midst of health crises related to MCC’s abusive practices, with MCC staff showing a seemingly total lack of concern for our wellbeing or safety. Together, we are aware of at least 17 other cases of individuals or couples whose time with MCC ended in deeply painful ways.

Based on our personal experiences as well as our awareness of the experiences of others, it seems to us that top leaders within MCC are covering up workplace abuse through psychologically violent and financially unethical firing practices that disregard workers’ and partners’ health and wellbeing. 

For more information, read our full open letter to MCC constituents, which includes detailed stories to illustrate at least six aspects to this pattern of abuse, at https://online.fliphtml5.com/rcyuu/lcvv/ 

We have made dozens of attempts to get the attention of MCC leaders and to resolve our grievances confidentially through discussion or mediation. MCC has consistently responded with minimization, prevarication, or pseudo-investigations. Public exposure is needed to hold MCC accountable to its constituency for this extensive history and pattern of worker abuse.

We need you, MCC constituents, to support us in holding MCC accountable to its peacebuilding values.

By signing this petition, you are communicating to MCC leaders that you require transparent accountability from them. You are insisting that MCC stop hurting its workers and partners. You are demanding that MCC leaders answer the following questions publicly, directly, and without delay or prevarication.

Please consider signing this petition today, and share it widely in your social networks.

Thank you!

Anicka Fast and John Clarke, International Service Workers (MCC Representatives) in Burkina Faso, 2020-2023. Fired following a clinical diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder, shortly after escalating our concerns about workplace abuse to Executive Directors and Board chair.

Kathryn and Dan Smith Derksen, International Service Workers in Chad, 2006-2009. Fired by phone, planned mediation cancelled, and given six days to leave the country.

Anonymous couple, International Service Workers in Africa. Lost employment in 201X after speaking out for health needs while pregnant.

Anonymous individual, National Staff in Asia. Fired in 202X after using MCC’s confidential reporting service, in the presence of one of the individuals who investigated my report of abuse.

 
 

MCC leaders, these are our questions for you:

NDAs, settlements, and hush money

1. Does MCC condone paying money to current or former workers in return for their agreement to waive grievances or to be silent about abuse? 

2. Will you publicly invite those who may have signed a non-disparagement or non-disclosure agreement to come forward and share their stories in a safe environment without fear of retaliation of any kind?

3. Will you provide your constituency with a transparent report that shows, since 2010: 

· How many MCC workers were appointed or hired;

· How many MCC workers had their employment terminated early by MCC;

· In how many of these cases workers were terminated for medical reasons;

· How many MCC workers resigned before the end of their term;

· How many workers signed non-disparagement or non-disclosure agreements at termination in exchange for a settlement;

· How many investigations MCC has conducted into worker grievances and complaints, and who has carried out these investigations;

· How many investigations MCC has conducted into allegations of unjust firing, and who has carried out these investigations;

· Funds spent on legal fees related to employment terminations;

· Funds spent on settlements for terminated employees (beyond the amounts of transitional living support or resettlement allowance required by policy #7422)?

In all these cases, please provide numbers by year and by MCC entity/region (MCC Great Lakes, MCC Manitoba, International Program region [e.g., East Africa and Sahel], etc.…), and by worker type (International Service Worker, salaried staff in North America, salaried staff outside North America [National Staff], IVEP, SALT, and YAMEN).

4. Will you publicly commit to end the practice of settlement NDAs (i.e., stop asking workers to sign non-disparagement or non-disclosure agreements in cases of discrimination, harassment and bullying, and use non-disclosure agreements in general for no other purpose than that of protecting intellectual property and trade secrets)?

Medical leave

5. What is the medical leave policy for international workers? How long can they be off work while sick without fear of being fired?

6. Does MCC condone firing workers who are on medical leave?

Complaint and grievance processes

7. What is the process that MCC currently follows when an Executive Director or HR Director is accused of misconduct? How are complainants protected from retaliation in this specific case, given the HR Directors’ involvement in all employee terminations?

8. How can MCC workers report about abuse that has occurred within a process that MCC has deemed confidential?

9. Does MCC think it is acceptable for the supervisor of a complainant to be part of the case management team investigating a complaint?

Investigation and restitution

10. Are you ready to listen non-defensively and respectfully to (former) workers’ experiences of abuse, without legal threats, with the assumption that they are sharing their experiences truthfully and in good faith? 

11. Will you commit to a transparent, external, independent third-party investigation into our complaints as well as the complaints of others who may come forward? (To be clear, you have a legal responsibility to ensure that a fair and impartial investigation is completed into allegations as serious as these. We are not talking about a third-party investigator chosen by MCC, whose conclusions you can bury or ignore, but an investigation that is carried out by an external, survivor-centered and trauma-informed firm chosen by MCC constituents, whose main goal is not to protect MCC from liability but to pursue justice and rebuild trust between MCC and its stakeholders as well as those whom it has harmed.)

12. Will you commit to making a full report of such an investigation publicly available, following the example of other faith-based organizations (such as the Guidepost Solutions report of their investigation into the response to sexual abuse allegations by the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, available at https://mennoniteabuseprevention.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Guidepost-Solutions-report-2022-Southern-Baptist-Convention.pdf?

13. If our allegations are determined to be founded, will you make things right for those who have been harmed without muzzling them (through, for example, public apologies and financial restitution that are not conditional on a non-disparagement or non-disclosure agreement)?

14. If our allegations are determined to be founded, will you take immediate steps to prevent further abuse within MCC (for example, by taking disciplinary action against those found guilty of misconduct, by revising policies, and by changing structures where needed)?

Transparency of MCC policies

15. Will you make your policies available so your constituency can read them? 

16. Will you welcome feedback on your policies in the form of an in-depth third-party review of all MCC policies including those related to worker care and protection, conflict resolution and grievance, workplace harassment and violence, worker termination, and any others that the reviewers deem relevant? 

17. Will you make the report of this review publicly available?

Board accessibility

18. Are members of the public free to contact MCC board members (not just chairs) with concerns? If so, how?

19. Can you commit to making contact information publicly available for all board members?

MCC leaders, you say that “When we fail in our commitments and abuse our power, we want to know about it.” You promise to “take steps to reduce the chance of future harm and prevent it from happening again.” It is time for you to live out this promise, not through further secrecy, but by being transparently accountable to your constituency.

We look forward to hearing your answers to these questions.

Sincerely,

your global constituency