19th News: Congress passes bill to ban NDAs in cases of workplace sexual harassment

Five years after the #MeToo movement took off, Congress is now limiting an employer’s ability to keep its employees quiet in cases of sexual assault and harassment.

One in three women report having faced sexual harassment in the workplace, and often they can’t talk about it: More than one-third of the U.S. workforce is bound by nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) that can silence victims of abuse and shield employers from accountability. But now, five years after the #MeToo movement took off, Congress is limiting an employer’s ability to keep its employees quiet. 

On Wednesday, Congress passed bipartisan legislation, the Speak Out Act, which bans the use of nondisclosure agreements in cases of workplace sexual assault and harassment, by a vote of 315 to 109. The bill passed in the Senate in September and is now headed to the Oval Office to be signed into law.