Earlier this week, the National Labor Relations Board issued a decision that says employers can no longer demand silence from former employees in exchange for severance pay, according to a report from Channel3000.
Doing so, according to the board, violates employees’ rights under sections 7 and 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act.
“A severance agreement is unlawful if it precludes an employee from assisting co-workers with workplace issues concerning their employer, and from communicating with others, including a union, and the board, about his employment,” the board wrote in its decision Tuesday.
As such, employers can no longer include broadly written confidentiality clauses that require former employees to not disclose the terms of their severance agreement, and they can no longer include broadly written non-disparagement clauses that prohibit former employees from discussing the terms and conditions of their employment with third parties.
The ruling reverses a decision from Trump-era NLRB members that decided in a prior case that these were lawful restrictions on employees as a condition of receiving severance.
