Petition Calls For Channel 4 News Operator ITN To “Release Women Who Have Been Silenced From NDAs”

deadline.com:

Channel 4 News’ operator ITN is facing difficult questions as an online petition calls for “women who have been silenced to be released from NDAs.”The petition, organized by campaign group Pregnant Then Screwed, says women who were previously employed by Channel 4 News have been “silenced by confidentiality clauses, otherwise known as NDAs.”It adds: “The testimonies from these women state that speaking out to bosses about what they faced ultimately ruined both their careers and their mental health.”ITN, which operates news services for ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, said it “does not and has not dealt in ‘NDAs’ with employees,” adding: “ITN uses settlement agreements to document the mutually-agreed resolution of a dispute or to facilitate the exit of an employee from the business on agreed terms.”The petition was released this morning as former UK government minister and campaigner Maria Miller told The Times she is aware of several cases in which present and former employees had been silenced after alleging discriminatory treatment at work.She has written to ITN CEO Deborah Turness, the soon-to-be-appointed BBC News Chief, about these cases and issues of “pregnancy discrimination and workplace bullying.”Former Channel 4 News journalists and staff told The Times confidentiality clauses had been used to settle cases, including one in which women discovered they were being underpaid after returning from maternity leave.

Deadline has separately been made aware of at least one of these cases that has taken place in the past year.Pregnant Then Screwed was launched in 2015 by author Joeli Brearley, who says she was fired from her job via voicemail two days after informing her employer she was pregnant with her first child.