Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

This amendment inserts a new section 14B into the Employment Equality Act 1998 to introduce measures to limit the use of non-disclosure agreements, NDAs, where an employee has alleged discrimination, harassment, sexual harassment or victimisation. The proposal provides that such NDAs may be entered in to only if requested by the employee, and with legal advice provided at the employer's expense. The amendment lays out a list of conditions that must be met in order for such an NDA to be enforceable. It must be set out in writing, be in an accessible format, have a 14-day waiting period to allow the employee to withdraw from the agreement, be of unlimited duration unless the employee elects otherwise, include information about who the employee can make disclosures to, which includes a member of the Garda, a legal practitioner, a registered medical practitioner, a mental health professional, an officer of the Revenue Commissioners, an officer of the Office of the Ombudsman, an officer of a trade union or such individual or member of such class of individual as may be specified within the NDA. The NDA proposals were included in the general scheme and have been considered by the committee during pre-legislative scrutiny. The amendment further proposes to exempt NDAs that are agreed through the Workplace Relations Commission's mediation service.

These proposals build on a previous Private Members' Bill sponsored by Senator Lynn Ruane and Senators Flynn, Black and Higgins. As we know, that Private Members' Bill passed all Stages of the Seanad. My own Department did a consultation on the equality legislation and a section on the NDA is one which we had significant feedback on. I want to note my appreciation to Senator Ruane for her work and co-operation with me and my officials in advancing this important legislation.