£400,000 gagging city staff
HUNDREDS of thousands of pounds in public money has been spent ‘gagging’ former employees.
In the past five years Glasgow City Council has spent nearly £400,000 on non-disclosure contracts, including £100,000 to one party.
Opposition politicians said the confidentiality clauses are ‘not a good look’.
NEARLY £400,000 of public money has been spent by Glasgow’s council ‘gagging’ employees or firms, figures show.
Last year eight non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) were agreed by the local authority, costing £77,138.
However in one case, between 2015 and 2016, Glasgow City Council shelled out £100,000 to one party.
Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) are contracts between an employer and another individual or organisation, where they agree not to disclose confidential or sensitive information.
They are often accompanied by payouts – and have been criticised for their potential for ‘paying for silence’.
They can includes redundancy settlements or deals with commercial providers.
In the past five years Glasgow City Council has settled a total of 35 non-disclosure agreements, costing taxpayers a total of £377,256.
As revealed by a Freedom of Information request, in one year alone as many as 10 of the settlements were signed by council bosses and former staff, contractors and others with sensitive information.
Some city representatives have now hit out at the use of the “dubious use of public money”. Councillor Jon Molyneux, Glasgow Greens spokesperson on local democracy, said: “We obviously don’t know the details of individual cases, but in general, resorting to gagging orders is not a good look for a council that says it’s committed to openness and transparency.
“It’s also a dubious use of public money at a time when the council faces a £60 million budget black hole and is having to consider brutal cuts to vital local services.
“Questions must certainly be asked about the eye-watering six-figure payout under the last Labour administration, but it’s also concerning that there has been an increase in the use of these agreements under the new SNP leadership.”
These agreements have been widely criticised in the UK, with an NDA bill of £2.4million bringing the House of Commons under fire, with MPs calling for these to be made “a thing of the past”.
The Home Office has also been panned for its use of ‘gagging orders’, while in the USA there have been claims that these have potentially been used to cover up sexual harassment.
Glasgow City Council have stressed that non-disclosure agreements have only been used in the interests of Glasgow and workers at the council and are not used to suppress staff’s views.
A spokesman said: “The figures reflect the total cost of agreements and settlements that include some kind of confidentiality clause.
“Agreements can be made for a variety of reasons, to protect the interests of both the city and employees or former employees – for example, an officer leaving with knowledge of sensitive commercial information.
“NDAs are not used to supress complaints. Like most local authorities in Scotland, the council has a whistleblowing policy that actively encourages staff to raise concerns – and makes provision for them to do so anonymously, if they feel that is necessary.”