The ruling that frees laid-off workers to speak out

1 big thing

Axios

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4 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 27 March 2023

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

The National Relations Labor Board recently ruled that broad non-disparagement clauses — which some companies make workers sign to receive severance benefits — are unlawful. Plus, Mississippi and Alabama face the aftermath of a deadly tornado. And, how more U.S. schools are supporting students during Ramadan. Guests: Axios' Emily Peck and Shawna Chen. Credits: Axios Today is produced by Niala Boodhoo, Alexandra Botti, Fonda Mwangi and Alex Sugiura. Music is composed by Evan Viola. You can reach us at [email protected]. You can text questions, comments and story ideas to Niala as a text or voice memo to 202-918-4893. Go Deeper: Labor Board says non-disparagement clauses are unlawful — here’s what that means How to help the people affected by the Mississippi tornadoes An increasing number of U.S. school districts now observe Ramadan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Good morning. Welcome, Nexios today. It's Monday, March 27th. I'm Nyla Boudou. Today on the show,
0:10.3	Mississippi and Alabama face the aftermath of a deadly tornado. Plus, how more U.S. schools are
0:16.6	supporting students during Ramadan. But first, the ruling that frees laid off workers to open up
0:22.6	about former employers. That's our one big thing. The National Labor Relations Board,
0:31.2	last month ruled, overly broad non-desperagement clauses, which some companies make workers sign
0:37.9	in order to get severance benefits are unlawful. The clause typically stops people from speaking out
0:43.7	about their former employers. Here with what this change means for laid-off workers,
0:48.0	is Nexios' Emily Pack High Emily? Hey, Nyla. So, is a non-desperagement clause? Does it mean exactly
0:54.1	what it says? You can't say anything bad about your former employer? Yes, Nyla, exactly. You can't
0:58.7	disparage. You can't say anything bad about your employer, both publicly and in private, actually.
1:04.9	A lot of the clauses are paired with confidentiality clauses, which say you can't tell anyone about
1:10.6	this agreement except close family, a spouse, or an advisor, like a lawyer. So, what does this new
1:16.0	ruling mean for people who have been laid off recently? I'm thinking about all the layoffs we've
1:21.6	seen in technology and journalism lately? Yes, interesting. The labor boards ruling came out
1:28.3	towards the end of February. There were questions at the time, is this ruling retroactive? What if I was
1:33.7	laid off in January or December? As you just said, plenty of tech workers were laid off at that time.
1:40.1	And then last week, the General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, Jennifer Abruzzo,
1:46.0	came out with a memo and clarified, yes, this is retroactive. So, what that could mean for laid-off
1:52.0	workers is they can talk publicly about, you know, their working conditions and talk to each other
1:58.2	about their experiences and share information with each other in ways that they might not have
2:04.4	technically been able to before. So, if this is retroactive, how far back does this supply?
2:10.8	As far as you want to go, Naila, I was looking back at a contract I'd signed in 2021 that included
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