This morning I saw a news item that describes a new law in Ireland that would ban the use of Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) in sexual harassment cases. The law is being considered by Cabinet today but, with the summer recess imminent, the earliest the legislation can be passed through the Oireachtas is in the autumn, after the Dáil returns. That is unless a General Election intervenes.
The legislation will amend the Employment Equality Act to state that an employer shall not enter an NDA with an employee where the employee has made allegations of discrimination, harassment or sexual harassment.
Such agreements have been used quite frequently to prevent victims of harassment from speaking publicly about their experiences thus enabling harassers to move elsewhere without anyone knowing what they had done. This ploy is also seen by Management as a way of preventing reputational damage, although it does not seem to me to be a good way of doing that as the truth has a way of coming out anyway and the effect of hiding the misconduct when it does causes more reputational damage than the harassment itself.
This reminds me of things I wrote a while ago in connection with a case at Leiden University where the Management decided not to name a professor involved in such a case (who was subsequently identified as Tim de Zeeuw). I thought this was a nonsense, for at least two reasons. The first is that I think someone who has behaved in such a way should be named as a matter of principle, so that potential collaborators and future employers know what he has done. In previous posts on this topic I had defended confidentiality (e.g. here) during an investigation, but I still think that once it has been decided that a disciplinary offences have been committed there should be full disclosure.
The second is that failing to identify the individual concerned led to a proliferation of rumours inside and outside Leiden (none of which I am prepared to repeat here). As a result, the finger of suspicion was pointed at the wrong people until the name of the abusive Professor is revealed. That made for a very difficult working environment for everyone concerned.
Of course the new law, when passed, will only apply to cases in Ireland. In Astronomy, as in many other parts of academia, there is a great deal of international mobility. The new legislation would not prevent someone who has engaged in such misconduct in, for example, the United Kingdom applying for a job in Ireland without this coming to light. One could hope that other countries follow suit, but the wheels of the legislature are known to turn quickly in any country that I know of.
Finally, I think it’s an important question whether or not this legislation is retroactive. If it is, and past NDAs are declared null and void then it will blow open many cases. I can imagine rather a lot of people getting rather nervous at this prospect…
