Latest news with #ZeldaPerkins
The Guardian
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘Nowhere for them to hide any more': Zelda Perkins' fight against NDAs after Harvey Weinstein
Zelda Perkins was 24 when – exhausted, broken and surrounded by lawyers – she finally agreed to sign the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) that would legally gag her from talking about Harvey Weinstein's sexually predatory and abusive behaviour. The suffocating power of that document haunted her for decades, casting a long shadow over her life and making her ill. 'If I go back to that room, I did not ever imagine that it would be possible to reach any form of justice,' she says. Now, eight years since she first broke her NDA and inadvertently became the world's leading campaigner against them, Perkins feels justice may finally be within her grasp. On Monday, in a move that surprised even the most committed campaigners, the UK government announced sweeping measures that will prohibit bosses from using NDAs to silence abused employees. The following day, Perkins is still digesting the news, but her delight is palpable. 'This is huge,' she says. 'It's the beginning of abusers having to change their behaviour – not because somebody's wagging a finger at them, not because they are told to, but because they have to. There's nowhere for them to hide any more, they just have to effing behave themselves.' The government's stance has, she happily admits, gone beyond her expectations. If unchanged, the new measures will protect gig-economy workers as well as staff, requests for NDAs will be able to come only from complainants, not employers, and workers will be given access to legal advice. Crucially, 'non-disparagement clauses' (widely used since non-disclosure became a 'dirty word', says Perkins) will be off the table in cases of abuse. 'It's really, really ambitious; if they actually do what they say they're going to do, it is totally world-leading,' says Perkins, who set up the Can't Buy My Silence campaign in the UK to lead the fight against abusive NDAs in 2021. The campaign argued that while NDAs may be necessary for intellectual property or commercially sensitive information, they have become a routinely used weapon to silence victims of bullying, sexual harassment or abuse, especially in lower-income sectors like retail and hospitality. 'I'm super excited in a way I haven't felt before, because I feel like I can almost smell freedom,' she says. 'But the reality is this is the first step in quite a long parliamentary process. Tomorrow it is absolutely back to the grindstone, because this isn't done yet.' With inclusion and diversity under attack by Donald Trump's administration, the move is also globally significant, Perkins argues. Legislation has changed in more than 27 US states, a Canadian province and the Republic of Ireland – but companies are feeling nervous. Recently, two global corporations who signed up to Can't Buy My Silence's pledge not to use NDAs in cases of abuse, did not want to publicise the fact, for fear of it is being reversed. 'With DEI being rolled back, Britain leading the way here is pretty bloody huge,' she says. 'There's part of me that is scared of highlighting that because I don't want to scare the horses. But essentially, this is actually now much more important than it ever has been.' It is also a moment of huge personal significance. Perkins never wanted to be a campaigner – she just felt, finally, as if she had no other choice. 'I'm the most accidental activist that ever walked the earth,' she says. 'I've literally spent my whole time trying not to do it. 'At 24 when I went to the lawyers, I thought: if I tell the grownups, then they'll sort it out.' She felt the same when she spoke to the New York Times' Jodi Kantor about Weinstein eight years ago, breaking her NDA and sparking a chain reaction that would eventually lead to his incarceration. 'But what I didn't realise in 2017, when I was 45, was that I was a grownup,' she says. 'Because I'd been silent for 23 years, I thought nobody could hear me or see me, and I was stupid. I did not believe that I had any right or power to make any change.' When the change she wanted – even expected – to see didn't happen, she kept going. She enlisted a 'ferocious team of female allies' across the campaigning and political sphere – including, but not limited to, the former Conservative minister Maria Miller, Labour's Jess Phillips and Louise Haigh, and the Liberal Democrats' Layla Moran in the House of Commons, Helena Morrissey and Helena Kennedy in the Lords, the former TUC boss Frances O'Grady in the unions and Joeli Brearley, founder of Pregnant Then Screwed, on the campaign front. She kept going. 'It's funny because everyone goes: 'Oh you're so brave for breaking your NDA' – none of that was brave,' she says. 'I tell you what's brave: every single campaigner getting up every morning when you're on your own and continuing to fight the system with no remuneration, no encouragement, and nobody really there to hold your hand. That's brave.' But there is a reason she, and others, fight on. 'Being able to make change is the biggest, most fulfilling thing any of us can do. We're all looking to be part of a bigger thing,' she says. 'I'm very lucky to have been able to turn something so negative into a positive, because 90% of women who've been in these situations don't get to do that and that's really why this win is much more for them than me.' Still, the fight – and the exposure – took its toll. At the start of the year a series of false dawns had left her disheartened and demoralised. The support of Haigh and a group of high-profile baronesses in the Lords changed the dynamic, but when she got a call from government aides about the amendments on Friday, before a meeting with the business minister Justin Madders on Monday, she expected the worst. 'I was like: 'Oh God, here we go. They want to break it to me softly to make sure that I don't cry in the meeting.'' The news, they assured her, was definitely positive. On Monday she travelled to Westminster and found herself back in a room of power, but this time she was part of it. 'Without sounding woo woo, that has been the healing part,' she says. 'As corny as it sounds, this has made me acknowledge the privilege of living in a democracy. It's tough, and yes, the buttons are sticky and the levers are rusty, but they do actually work.' So what is next for the woman – part of a vanishingly rare breed – who took on power across multiple fronts and actually won? She will, she promises, continue to buzz around the government like a committed gnat, determined to see this through. Then, maybe, a rest. 'Since the story broke in 2017 it's been a maelstrom,' she says. 'Like I was attached to a surfboard but sort of under the water most of the time. I'm now on the surfboard, but really knackered – and I'd just like to get off and go and lie on the beach.'
The Guardian
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘There's nowhere for them to hide any more': Zelda Perkins on Harvey Weinstein and NDAs
Zelda Perkins was 24 when – exhausted, broken and surrounded by lawyers – she finally agreed to sign the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) that would legally gag her from talking about Harvey Weinstein's sexually predatory and abusive behaviour. The suffocating power of that document haunted her for decades, casting a long shadow over her life and making her ill. 'If I go back to that room, I did not ever imagine that it would be possible to reach any form of justice,' she says. Now, eight years since she first broke her NDA and inadvertently became the world's leading campaigner against them, Perkins feels like justice may finally be within her grasp. On Monday, in a move that surprised even the most committed campaigners, the UK government announced sweeping measures that will prohibit bosses from using NDAs to silence abused employees. The following day, Perkins is still digesting the news, but her delight is palpable. 'This is huge,' she says. 'It's the beginning of abusers having to change their behaviour – not because somebody's wagging a finger at them, not because they are told to, but because they have to. There's nowhere for them to hide any more, they just have to effing behave themselves.' The government's stance has, she happily admits, gone beyond her expectations. New measures will, if unchanged, protect gig-economy workers as well as staff, requests for NDAs will only be able to come from complainants, not employers, and workers will be given access to legal advice. Crucially 'non-disparagement clauses' (widely used since non-disclosure became a 'dirty word', says Perkins) will also be off the table in cases of abuse. 'It's really, really ambitious; if they actually do what they say they're going to do, it is totally world-leading,' says Perkins, who set up the Can't Buy My Silence campaign in the UK to lead the fight against abusive NDAs in 2021. The campaign argued that while NDAs may be necessary for intellectual property or commercially sensitive information, they have become a routinely used weapon to silence victims of bullying, sexual harassment or abuse, especially in lower-income sectors like retail and hospitality. 'I'm super excited in a way I haven't felt before, because I feel like I can almost smell freedom,' she says. 'But the reality is this is the first step in quite a long parliamentary process. Tomorrow it is absolutely back to the grindstone, because this isn't done yet.' With inclusion and diversity under attack by Donald Trump's administration, the move is also globally significant, Perkins argues. Legislation has changed in more than 27 US states, a Canadian province and the Republic of Ireland – but companies are feeling nervous. Recently, two global corporations who signed up to Can't Buy My Silence's pledge not to use NDAs in cases of abuse, did not want to publicise the fact, for fear of it is being reversed. 'With DEI being rolled back, Britain leading the way here is pretty bloody huge,' she says. 'There's part of me that is scared of highlighting that because I don't want to scare the horses. But essentially, this is actually now much more important than it ever has been.' It is also a moment of huge personal significance. Perkins never wanted to be a campaigner, she just felt, finally, like she had no other choice. 'I'm the most accidental activist that ever walked the earth,' she says. 'I've literally spent my whole time trying not to do it. 'At 24 when I went to the lawyers, I thought, if I tell the grownups, then they'll sort it out.' She felt the same when she spoke to the New York Times' Jodi Kantor about Weinstein eight years ago, breaking her NDA and sparking a chain reaction that would eventually lead to his incarceration. 'But what I didn't realise in 2017, when I was 45, was that I was a grownup,' she says. 'Because I'd been silent for 23 years, I thought nobody could hear me or see me, and I was stupid. I did not believe that I had any right or power to make any change.' When the change she wanted – even expected – to see didn't happen, however, she kept going. She enlisted a 'ferocious team of female allies' across the campaigning and political sphere – including, but not limited to, the former Conservative minister Maria Miller, Labour's Jess Phillips and Louise Haigh, and the Liberal Democrats' Layla Moran in the House of Commons, Helena Morrissey and Helena Kennedy in the Lords, former TUC boss Frances O'Grady in the unions and Joeli Brearley, founder of Pregnant Then Screwed, on the campaign front. She kept going. 'It's funny because everyone goes 'oh you're so brave for breaking your NDA' – none of that was brave,' she says. 'I tell you what's brave – every single campaigner getting up every morning when you're on your own and continuing to fight the system with no remuneration, no encouragement, and nobody really there to hold your hand. That's brave.' But there is a reason she, and others, fight on. 'Being able to make change is the biggest, most fulfilling thing any of us can do. We're all looking to be part of a bigger thing,' she says. 'I'm very lucky to have been able to turn something so negative into a positive, because 90% of women who've been in these situations don't get to do that and that's really why this win is much more for them than me.' Still, the fight – and the exposure – took its toll. At the start of the year a series of false dawns had left her disheartened and demoralised. The support of Haigh and a group of high profile baronesses in the Lords changed the dynamic, but when she got a call from government aides about the amendments on Friday, ahead of a meeting with the business minister Justin Madders on Monday, she expected the worst. 'I was like, 'Oh God, here we go. They want to break it to me softly to make sure that I don't cry in the meeting.''. The news, they assured her, was definitely positive. On Monday she travelled to Westminster and found herself back in a room of power, but this time, she was part of it. 'Without sounding woo woo, that has been the healing part,' she says. 'As corny as it sounds, this has made me acknowledge the privilege of living in a democracy. It's tough, and yes, the buttons are sticky and the levers are rusty, but they do actually work.' So what is next for the woman – part of a vanishingly rare breed – who took on power across multiple fronts and actually won? She will, she promises, continue to buzz around the government like a committed gnat, determined to see this through. Then, maybe, a rest. 'Since the story broke in 2017 it's been a maelstrom,' she says. 'Like I was attached to a surfboard but sort of under the water most of the time. I'm now on the surfboard, but really knackered – and I'd just like to get off and go and lie on the beach.'
BBC News
6 days ago
- Politics
- BBC News
Non-disclosure agreements gagging workers to be banned
Employers will be banned from using non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to silence victims of workplace sexual misconduct or discrimination, the government has said. An amendment to the Employment Rights Bill, which is expected to become law later this year, will void any confidentiality agreements seeking to prevent workers from speaking about allegations of harassment or discrimination. Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said it was "time we stamped this practice out". The use of NDAs to cover up criminality has been in the headlines ever since Zelda Perkins, a former assistant to Harvey Weinstein, the Hollywood mogul and now convicted sex offender, broke her agreement to accuse him of abuse. More recently, the now deceased Mohamed Al Fayed, who used to own Harrods, was accused of deploying confidentiality clauses to silence women who accused him of rape and abuse. An NDA is a legally binding document that protects confidential information between two parties. They can be used to protect intellectual property or other commercially sensitive information but over the years their uses have spread. Ms Perkins began campaigning for a change in the law more than seven years ago when she spoke out against Weinstein. She now runs the campaign group Can't Buy My Silence UK and said the amendment marked a ''huge milestone'' and that it showed the government had ''listened and understood the abuse of power taking place". Though she told the BBC's Today Programme: "Let's see what comes out in the actual details". She said "the real horror" of NDAs was that "the law protected the powerful person in the room, not the victims of a sexual crime". Ms Perkins said many of these agreements designed to silence victims would be unenforceable in court but they work because many victims do not know that. "Because of the nature of an NDA, no-one gets to see it. So they can say anything to make the victim afraid to speak," she said. The change in the law would bring the UK in line with Ireland, the US, and some provinces in Canada, which have banned such agreements from being used to prevent the disclosure of sexual harassment and discrimination. Employment rights minister Justin Madders said there was "misuse of NDAs to silence victims", which he called "an appalling practice". "These amendments will give millions of workers confidence that inappropriate behaviour in the workplace will be dealt with, not hidden, allowing them to get on with building a prosperous and successful career," he added. Peers will debate the amendments when the Employment Rights Bill returns to the House of Lords on 14 July and, if passed, will need to be approved by MPs as well.
Telegraph
6 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Banning NDAs isn't necessarily a slam dunk
Sometimes we see a case which is obviously unjust and naturally want to make it right. It is an admirable instinct in the individual, but for governments it is vital to take any case in context and consider the consequences before applying the sledgehammer of statute. The Employment Rights Bill which the deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, is currently shepherding through Parliament will have its Report Stage in the House of Lords next week. It is a huge collection of measures – currently 157 clauses and 12 schedules – which is broad in scope, from sick pay to seafarers' wages. Ministers, though, have now proposed a new clause to ban the use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) or confidentiality clauses in cases of harassment and discrimination, and to void any existing agreements. On the face of it, this will take away a weapon used by abusive employers to intimidate and silence their victims. It has been championed by Zelda Perkins, founder of campaign group Can't Buy My Silence UK, who was an assistant to Hollywood producer and serial sex offender Harvey Weinstein. Her decision in 2017 to break an NDA and speak out about the abuse she had suffered from Weinstein helped expose his sustained record of rape and abuse. Clearly Weinstein had misused a condition of non-disclosure to prevent Perkins from revealing her ordeal. Equally, there is no doubt that NDAs and confidentiality clauses have been used in many cases, especially in the entertainment industry, to keep victims of abuse silent. The benign intent behind this change is beyond doubt. But legislation does not target individual cases or groups of cases: it puts into statute general principles which must apply to everyone equally. The problem of generalising from the specific, as the new clause effectively does, is that it assumes that the circumstances will always be the same. In this case, it proceeds from the assumption that an NDA or confidentiality clause is always an attempt to prevent a genuine victim of harassment or discrimination from speaking publicly about it. Even if we assume that the overwhelming majority of claims of this kind are genuine and clear-cut, it would be astonishing if every single one was absolutely true as alleged. We know human nature better than that. There may be cases in which either a malicious accusation is brought, or in which the circumstances are complex and ambivalent. In such cases employers may agree to a financial settlement simply to bring the case to an end. Some campaign groups, like Maternity Action and the National Alliance of Women's Organisations, have argued that financial settlements which include an NDA are sometimes a practical and achievable way for those who have suffered to extract some kind of monetary benefit and move on. Employers will hardly be likely to offer any kind of settlement to bring a dispute to an end if the option of genuine closure is taken away, and if there is a danger of it continuing to be litigated in the court of public opinion. Katie Waissel, a former reality television star who now campaigns against the use of NDAs, summed up the problem, but her words hint at the other issues. 'I understand non-disclosure agreements in terms of protecting trade, like a formula for haircare or something else like that. But for the music industry, and it being so one-sided for this company, it begs me to ask the question – why so secretive? What are you trying to hide? What are you trying to cover up?' The questions are valid, but there may sometimes be equally valid answers other than abusive employers imposing silence. The mere existence of the questions should not inevitably lead to legislative change. There is unquestionably a problem with NDAs being misused (although section 17 of the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024 makes them unenforceable if they prevent the reporting of crime). A ban on their use is straightforward and eye-catching, but legislation is a blunt instrument and should be a last resort; legislators should instead consider whether reform and regulation is a preferable option.
The Sun
6 days ago
- Business
- The Sun
Victims of abuse in workplace will no longer be kept quiet by confidentiality agreements
BOSSES who try to silence workers subjected to sexual harassment or discrimination will have confidentiality agreements ripped up under new plans. Victims will no longer be kept quiet as employers will find that Non-Disclosure Agreements are made null and void. The move will mean that witnesses will be able to speak out publicly and support victims without the threat of being sued themselves. Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said: 'We have heard the calls from victims of harassment and discrimination to end the misuse of NDAs. 'It is time we stamped this practice out – and this government is taking action to make that happen.' The confidentiality agreements have been used to restrict what signatories can say or who they can tell about such abuse. The changes are set to be introduced to the employment rights package which is currently going through Parliament. Ex-Cabinet Minister Louise Haigh MP said: "The Government's decision to ban NDAs in cases of harassment and discrimination is an incredible victory for victims and campaigners. "Victims of harassment and discrimination have been forced to suffer in silence for too long. "This legislation is the result of years of tireless campaigning by victims and advocates. "This victory belongs to them. Organisations like Can't Buy My Silence, led by the indefatigable Zelda Perkins, have exposed the harm caused by this toxic practice. She said it "will mean that bad employers can no longer hide behind legal practices that cover up their wrongdoing and prevent victims from getting justice". Zelda Perkins, who spearheads the Can't Buy My Silence campaign, was a former PA to disgraced Harvey Weinstein. She said: 'This is a huge milestone, for years, we've heard empty promises from governments whilst victims have continued to be silenced, to see this Government accept the need for nationwide legal change shows that they have listened and understood the abuse of power taking place. 'Above all though, this victory belongs to the people who broke their NDAs, who risked everything to speak the truth when they were told they couldn't. Without their courage, none of this would be happening. 'This is not over yet and we will continue to focus closely on this to ensure the regulations are watertight and no one can be forced into silence again. 'If what is promised at this stage becomes reality, then the UK will be leading the world in protecting not only workers but the integrity of the law.'
