Zelda Perkins, Harvey Weinstein's ex-assistant, applauds UK's NDA ban: 'It's given me faith in democracy'

Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) that silence workplace harassment or discrimination are to be banned in the UK as part of an amendment to the Employment Rights Bill.

The controversial legal practice was originally implemented to protect intellectual property or other pieces of sensitive or commercial information. However, reports show that NDAs have become commonly used to prevent people from speaking out about harassment in the workplace.

Can’t Buy my Silence, run by its CEO and founder Zelda Perkins, has led on this campaign since 2021. Perkins, who was named on our 2024 Changemakers list, told Big Issue: “This amendment if it goes through, will be leading in the world. I kind of can’t believe I’m saying it out loud.

“It’s not there yet, but if the government manages to get their intentions done then it will be a leading worldwide protection for employees as it’s also covering interns and freelancers hopefully, and people in casual work. And people who witness harassment and discrimination. This is just something that hasn’t happened anywhere else.”

Read more:

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• Two thirds of young women have experienced sexual harassment, bullying or verbal abuse at work
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Perkins set up the campaign group to outlaw the use of NDAs, after being silenced by one while working as an assistant for Harvey Weinstein.

While working at Miramax Films in the UK during the 1990s, Perkins was subjected to “coercive, intimidating and frightening behaviour” from the infamous film director throughout her employment. After a colleague told her Weinstein had sexually assaulted and attempted to rape her, Perkins, aged 24, went to her immediate supervisor to report her boss.

What followed was a “bewildering” process that made Perkins feel like she was “under siege”, despite the fact that she and her colleague were the victims of the situation. It wasn’t until 2017 that Perkins broke her NDA with Weinstein, becoming the first woman to do so.

“Having been silent 23 years and then now having broken my NDA and been fighting for this for seven years, it’s given me faith in democracy again,” Perkins said.

“It’s given me faith in the fact that change can be made. But it’s also been a fight that has been disproportionately hard considering this is about the integrity of the law and protecting victims of abuse. From the moment I burnt my NDA, every politician was positive about this, so the fact that this has taken such a long time is pretty frustrating.

“But I’m not going to be frustrated by that right now,“ she added. “I’m just going to be really positive about the fact that this has happened.”

Perkins pointed out that at the moment, due to legislation brought in by the conservative government, we are in a two-tier NDA system.

“The Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act, which makes NDAs illegal in higher education, means that if you were a lecturer at a university, you were protected. But if you were a cleaner working at that university for an external firm, you would not protected.”

The introduction of this amendment would end this two-tier system.

“The reality is, that the majority of NDAs are not legally enforceable. It’s just a form of threat. But most victims don’t have the financial or emotional wherewithal or psychological wherewithall to go to court and test that, and why should they?

“The burden of everything has been from the start, they’ve been abused. They then have to go through an awful process of settlement. They’ve been aren’t allowed to speak, and often that means not to their friends or family or a therapist or anything, and that’s catastrophic, damaging to a person’s mental health and professional life.

“But I think now the risk equation has totally changed, and I think people who may have felt there was no point in even looking at their agreement might go back and have a look at it a little bit more carefully, might get a lawyer to have a look at it. Might actually find that their agreement is not as bad as they think, is it? And this is mostly for threat.”

While Perkins stresses that she is not advocating for people to suddenly break their NDAs, as every NDA is completely different, but it’s “certainly a call for people to maybe not feel the irrational and overwhelming fear that they have done”.

MPs Layla Moran and Louise Haigh, as well as Baronesses Frances O’Grady, Helena Morrissey, Helena Kennedy and Susan Craig, were all named by Perkins for providing cross-bench support to the campaign. The Employment Rights Bill is set to return to the Lords next week, and Perkins, while cautious, is “pretty hopeful” that all this will come to pass.

“[The government] will be doing this pretty quickly,” Perkins explained. “If this does get through and Royal Assent by the end of the year, this could absolutely be implemented by next year.”

For Perkins, the next stage is making sure this moment of change becomes lasting protection.

“This win, when it’s in legislation, certainly lies at the feet of all those brave people, men and women, who have broken NDAs, who have whistleblown, who have spoken up and taken huge personal and financial and professional risks,” she said.

“Now, it means that in the future, it cannot happen for other people.”

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