Keep quiet, or lose your settlement

Workplace Law

Vindication can be a powerful driver for terminated employees who receive a settlement, and it can be psychologically satisfying to share that win with their closest confidantes, the same individuals with whom they have been remonstrating about their plight.

But doing so is a mistake. You should never speak about your settlement with anyone because such agreements almost invariably have confidentiality or nondisclosure clauses that prevent discussing any of its terms and sometimes, even that there was a settlement. Aside from informing your legal or financial advisers or spouse, if you disclose this to any other outside persons, you might be forced to repay the entire amount.

This is exactly what happened in an arbitration decision between The Globe and Mail and author and journalist Jan Wong. It was a specific provision of the agreement that Wong could not disclose the terms of her settlement and that, if she did, she would be required to pay back the settlement of two year’s salary.

Years later, Wong published Out of the Blue, a book about her experience with workplace depression. In the book, Wong made disparaging comments such as, “I’d just been paid a pile of money to go away” and “I can’t disclose the amount of money I received.”

She argued that she didn’ t disclose the terms because she understood she could speak about the terms of the settlement as long as she did not reveal the actual amounts paid. The arbitrator ruled, based on the agreement’s wording, that simply disclosing that she had received a payment was enough. She was ordered to repay the lump sum. And the court upheld that.

A similar situation occurred in a 2012 Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario