Former Fox News political commentators Julie Roginsky and Gretchen Carlson are taking aim at corporations who use nondisclosure agreements to stop victims of toxic workplace issues from speaking about their experiences.
Roginsky and Carlson have formed a national advocacy group, Lift Our Voices,
“If there are companies that we feel are abusing their NDA process, to malign women or to protect a toxic work environment, we will build our digital army and we will send out a call to action to boycott their project,” Roginsky told the Hollywood Reporter in an interview that ran today.
According to Roginsky, the entertainment industry is susceptible to NDA abuses.
“It’s actors, it’s grips, it’s craft service people, who all sign NDAs because they understand they’re promising not to give away details about the script or the production,” Roginsky told the Hollywood Reporter. “But these same NDAs are used to hide the fact that people are treated horribly, and their rights are completely eradicated in terms of speaking out. So the next set of people who work with a predator will often not know what they’re walking into.”
Roginsky and Carlson want other states to pass laws like the one sponsored in New Jersey by Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck) that makes nondisclosure agreements unenforceable when they involve allegations of harassment or assault.
Fox has ignored requests from Roginsky, an influential Democratic political consultant, and Carlson to release them from their NDAs.
Lift Our Voices is seeking to “create a seismic cultural shift where all current and former workers and volunteers are able to speak truth to power without adverse consequences and fear of retaliation.”
“Many workers have been branded with a professional scarlet letter or suffer other kinds of personal and emotional trauma after being forced to adhere to these harmful practices following experiences with some form of harassment, abuse, discrimination, or retaliation at work,” the organization’s website says. “We must Lift Our Voices to level the playing field for everyone – to fight for, support, and elevate all of us – not just for this generation, but for generations to come.”
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NDA are toxic but not limited to celebrities who make ‘big bucks’. Anyone remember New York Telephone Company; New Jersey Bell Telephone Company and 20 other companies which were part of the ‘Bell System’ under the umbrella of AT&T?
In 1984 this companies were sliced and diced into 7 Regional Corporations – NYNEX in New York; Bell Atlantic in New Jersey. I wound up as an employee of NYNEX. September of 1992 ‘a day of infamy’ due to the fact that for the first time ever what was once part of the Great American Telephone Company now known as NYNEX advised a substantial group of employees in the Information Services Group that they would be let go, not laid off as there would be no rehiring if they did not find employment in another sector of the Corporation or if enough employees in this sector did not voluntarily separate themselves from employment with what I call “Big Brother’ as opposed to Ma Bell.
I was in this Department and became aware of some employees destined to be involuntarily separated by November 13 1992 if the previously stated did not occur. I personally knew several who brought suit. They were people of color which is to say Black People. All thee people received a financial settlement. To get this decent money package each of the employees had to sign an Non Disclosure Agreement. I have felt these agreements should be illegal due to the inherent unfairness. If a person did not know someone and have the ability to bring suit they lost.
Time for all such agreements whether personal partnerships, civil unions, large company oppression of the little person and most especially, Big Government’s unfair Labor Practices. Get informed and Get Active for Justice for All.