'Deliberately silencing victims': Harvey Weinstein's former PA on fight to change NDA laws
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Zelda Perkins, a former assistant to Harvey Weinstein, tells The News Agents about her campaign to change laws around non-disclosure agreements in the UK, and her confusion why the Labour government hasn’t acted to change laws.
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In brief…
- Zelda Perkins has campaigned to end the use of non-disclosure agreements to keep employees silent about criminal activity they may experience while working for big businesses or people in the public eye.
- She tells The News Agents the Labour is “shooting itself in the foot” by not making the changes to law she’s calling for. The government says it aims to “get the balance right”.
- Changing the laws would bring fairness and equality to workers, something she believes should align with the values of the Labour Party.
What’s the story?
When sexual assault allegations were made against Harvey Weinstein in 2017, Zelda Perkins was probably the last person the media mogul expected to speak up against him.
A former assistant to the former film producer and sexual offender for more than 20 years, Perkins first exposed Weinstein’s behaviour to executives at the Miramax studio, but a non-disclosure agreement she signed legally blocked her from speaking publicly what she learned, and what she experienced, while working for him.
But in 2017, the same year as allegations against Weinstein emerged, Perkins became the first woman to break an NDA and speak out against her former employee.
She has since campaigned to change laws around NDAs to prevent other people finding themselves in a similar situation, where the threat of expensive legal action kept them silent, even amid serious allegations and investigations.
Perkins tells The News Agents that the use of NDAs has “secretly become a quiet pandemic” used and abused by people in power.
She says NDAs have been at the "root" of some of the biggest, and most shocking scandals in recent years – such as Weinstein, Mohammed Al Fayed, Jeffrey Epstein, and even the Post Office scandal here in the UK.
“The public are now very aware of non-disclosure agreements and how effectively the integrity of law is being made a mockery of, if you have a legally-enforceable agreement that is hiding harm,” Perkins says.
“The reality is, it's not generally enforceable, but for somebody who has been coerced and pushed into signing one, they aren't going to have the money or wherewithal to take it to court to test it.”
Perkins says the one place NDAs do have a valid place is where they originated – in businesses to protect intellectual property and trade secrets, not to keep people like her silent about predators and illegal activities.
'NDA use has become a quiet pandemic among people in power'
Are perceptions of NDAs changing?
But while it's easy to assume that NDAs only affect people who engage with the rich and famous, that simply isn't the case – with the agreements also being used in British universities in "secret settlements" – often involving sexual harassment and bullying.
A BBC investigation found that £87 million had been spent by universities on payouts involving NDAs between 2017 and 2019.
“It's about protecting reputation, and part of the problem with reputation is that people think if they hide stuff that will protect their reputation.”
That, she says, is now changing.
“Now people are understanding that a lot of NDAs aren't worth the paper they're written on,” she adds.
“The whole point of an NDA is to make sure that this information doesn't come into the public domain.
“So if you speak up and then an organisation goes after that person publicly, the company looks doubly treacherous and awful.”
Why hasn’t the Labour government changed NDA laws?
Perkins is now campaigning for the UK government to ban the misuse of NDAs, and their use to cover up criminal behaviour – but it's not proving an easy task.
"This Labour government was very keen on this before they got into power," she says.
"The Conservative government passed two pieces of legislation to tighten protections around NDAs."
Rishi Sunak brought Perkins campaigning around NDAs in higher education into the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023.
Justin Madders, parliamentary under-secretary of state for employment rights, competition and markets, tells The News Agents no additional action has been taken by the Labour government because it is "important that we get that balance right".
He says Labour is committed to "making sure that those commercial and legitimate business interests are protected, while at the same time not deliberately silencing victims."
But Perkins doesn't buy it.
“The balance is already there. There is nothing that's going to affect business confidentiality. He's a lawyer, and he knows better,” she says.
“It's a hierarchy of power, people in positions of power – and lawyers particularly. I'm not saying lawyers are bad, but they are terrified of changing this balance.
“They're terrified of the status quo being moved. And in commercial law, it makes lawyers a huge amount of money.”
Perkins has been supported in her campaign by Labour MP Louise Haigh, former transport secretary, who she says has been "absolutely brilliant".
"Labour are shooting themselves in the foot because this is basically a free amendment. It protects all workers," she says.
As things currently stand, lecturers and students in universities are protected from being forced to sign an NDA – but cleaners or any other employees have no such privilege. She describes this as a two-tier system.
“This is an amendment you would think they would grasp with both hands, and would make them very popular,” she says.
“They are the workers’ party, and this is protecting workers. All it's doing is giving a bit more parity and equality of bargaining power to victims.”
What next for Zelda Perkins’ NDA campaign?
Perkins has this week delivered a petition, signed by 93,000 people supporting her campaign, at the same time as the House of Lords debates her proposed changes to laws around NDAs. She expects a decision before the end of May 2025.
Perkins is adamant that there is still a place in society for NDAs to protect business, or the privacy of people in the public eye – but says her campaign boils down to one simple concept: "You cannot have a law protecting harm, or hiding harm."
"I think Labour would be making a very dangerous mistake not to move on this.
"There is no ethical, moral, legal reason why this can't happen."
Listen to the latest episode of The News Agents.
