Would be Democratic Presidential Nominee Michael Bloomberg surrendering to pressure has decided to exempt former female employees from NDA or non-disclosure agreements.
The business and investment Tycoon said his company was prepared to call back three NDAs “with women to address complaints about comments they said I had made”. His Democratic White House rivals have been dredging up the issue. Those who criticize the agreements say that these legal orders are used as tools to sush the employees who could potentially come forward to address workplace misconduct.
Bloomberg, 78 in a campaign statement on Friday recorded his media company Bloomberg LP had checked into its records of the past 3 decades and came with three NDAs.
“If any of them want to be released from their NDA so that they can talk about those allegations, they should contact the company and they’ll given a release,” he said.
“I’ve done a lot of reflecting on this issue over the past few days and I’ve decided that for so long as I’m running the company, we won’t offer confidentiality agreements to resolve claims of sexual harassment or misconduct going forward.”
He added: “I recognize that NDA’s, particularly when they are used in the context of sexual harassment and sexual assault, promote a culture of silence in the workplace and contribute to a culture of women not feeling safe or supported.”
Bloomberg is now one of the eight contestants hanging in the White House race and has strong odds to become Democrat’s Presidential candidate in a bid to oust incumbent Trump from White House in November’s election. The former NYC mayor is the world’s ninth richest man and has reportedly sprayed a hefty sum of USD 500m on his campaign since jumping into the race in last Nov.
The NDA’s gathered the attention when on a live TV debate in Las Vegas, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, lambasted the famed-investor for calling women names like “horse-faced lesbians” and “fat broads”. The senator also challenged the billionaire to release female employees from the NDAs but he didn’t agree. Former United States VP Joe Biden also criticized MB for working with the non-transparent agreements in his organization.
“All the mayor has to do is say,” you are released from the nondisclosure agreements,” Mr. Bidden said.
Warren, a law professor sped up the criticism a day later revealing that she had even drafted a contract for Mr. Bloomberg to sign to allow women out from the non-disclosure deals.
“I used to teach contract law, and I thought I would make this easy,” she said while addressing a Cable News Network town hall event on Thursday in Las Vegas.
