Workplace sexual harassment remains widespread in Australia, with 41% of women reporting they experienced it in the past five years. We also know that sexual harassment can have serious and lasting effects on health, wellbeing, workforce participation and career progression. In this context, the way complaints are resolved matters.
Research in Australia and internationally shows that non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) are often used in sexual harassment matters in ways that can silence people, conceal patterns of harm and make systemic change harder.
The Respect@Work Council’s 2022 Guidelines were introduced to support a more careful, case-by-case and trauma-informed approach to confidentiality clauses, rather than treating them as standard terms. But early evidence suggests practice has not shifted consistently across the profession.
The 2024 Let’s Talk About Confidentiality report found that strict NDAs remain common, that the Guidelines are not being applied consistently, and that negotiations about confidentiality can prolong proceedings and deepen distress for signatories.
Despite growing attention, there is still limited empirical evidence about how NDAs are experienced by the people who sign them in Australia. We need deeper research into how confidentiality clauses shape decision-making, recovery, access to support, reporting pathways, and career outcomes over time.
We also need to understand when confidentiality protects privacy in ways people want, and when it operates as a form of pressure or silencing. Building this evidence base is essential to improving legal practice, informing reform and ensuring responses to workplace sexual harassment are genuinely victim-centered.
Working Women’s Centre Australia want to work with academics, organisations, professionals, research institutions to better understand the health and economic impacts of silencing women. If you can contribute, are interested in partnering in research, please get in touch here.
International advocacy organisation Can’t Buy My Silence Endorses our Campaign!
Across the world, momentum is building to end the misuse of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) that silence people who experience sexual harassment, assault and discrimination.
Can’t Buy My Silence is an international advocacy campaign co-founded by Zelda Perkins and Professor Julie Macfarlane to challenge the misuse of non-disclosure agreements in cases involving harassment, discrimination and abuse. By amplifying survivor voices, supporting law reform and providing practical resources for institutions and advocates, the campaign has helped build global momentum for approaches to confidentiality that protect privacy without enforcing silence.
