Lift Our Voices Supports the House Oversight Committee’s Review of the NFL Investigation into Workplace Misconduct by the Washington Football Team
November 10, 2021
Rep. Carolyn Maloney, Chair
House Committee on Oversight and Reform
2308 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Rep. Raja Krisnamoorthi
115 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Chairwoman Maloney and Representative Krisnamoorthi:
We write to support your call for the Committee on Oversight and Reform’s inquiry into the National Football League’s investigation of the Washington Football Team. This includes unanswered questions surrounding the NFL’s findings when it comes to workplace harassment, discrimination, and other misconduct, and your requests for transparency from the NFL about the use of nondisclosure agreements that prevent survivors from speaking out about abuse and toxicity.
As public allegations of workplace harassment continue to surface, we cannot make progress towards stopping abuse without removing the harmful system that continues to silence victims. These mechanisms, such as NDAs and forced arbitration clauses, have been used repeatedly to silence victims and perpetuate misconduct in workplaces.
The recent and ongoing story of the Washington Football Team’s treatment of its employees is just another example of this practice. After female employees courageously came forward following alleged sexual harassment they experienced while working for the team, they were offered money in exchange for silence in the form of an NDA.
In 2018, former U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White, hired by the NFL to conduct an internal investigation related to the Carolina Panthers, recommended that the league prohibit NDAs in the future. The NFL has not indicated whether it limited the use of NDAs since that recommendation, and we applaud your request for details of the NDAs used by teams and the league.
The system of using arbitration clauses and nondisclosure agreements to silence victims means that misconduct never comes to light, perpetuating a workplace culture that fosters abuse and protects toxic behavior. Based on our own experiences as survivors, our organization has worked to eradicate the use of these silencing mechanisms to prevent those who have been assaulted, harassed, or abused in the workplace from speaking out.
One of the worst aspects of the Washington Football Team scandal is that it isn’t an outlier. There are countless other examples of this kind of workplace toxicity – from the world of sports, such as troubling stories from the National Women’s Soccer League, as well as in government and major corporations such as Bloomberg and Pinterest. Without legislative action, employees in workplaces across the United States remain subject to harmful abuse and harassment that go unreported and unresolved.
While some employers have led the way on this issue, we also believe there is a role for Congress to act to protect survivors and their ability to speak out. The Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021 (H.R. 4445 and S. 2342), which has bipartisan support in the House and Senate, would protect all workers from these damaging practices and is a decisive step towards ridding the workplace of discrimination, harassment, and abuse of women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ+ community. This legislation and your investigation are two critically important steps Congress can take right now to protect women and other employees in the workplace.
We fully support your oversight effort of the NFL’s handling of abuse and discrimination allegations against workers with the Washington Football Team and elsewhere. We also urge your colleagues to act expeditiously to pass H. 4445, which will make significant progress toward safer workplaces for workers nationwide.
Sincerely,
Gretchen Carlson, Co-founder, Lift Our Voices
Julie Roginsky, Co-founder, Lift Our Voices
ABOUT LOV
Lift Our Voices was launched in December 2019 to create positive, systemic change in American workplaces through the eradication of nondisclosure agreements for toxic work issues and mandatory arbitration clauses. Created and launched by Gretchen Carlson and Julie Roginsky, and Diana Falzone, LOV’s mission is to protect American workers by giving those in toxic work environments the freedom to speak freely about their workplace experiences and free them from the laws and business practices that prevent employees from publicly discussing toxic workplace conditions.
For more information on Lift Our Voices, visit https://www.liftourvoices.org/ and visit their Facebook and Twitter pages.