Close To A Gagging Clause?

 We believe we know our school well and that we can accurately predict the next moves. Over the past few years, the school has resorted to settlements to avoid further damage to its reputation. We are not surprised when the contracts from now on will include a gagging clause. Schools consider themselves absolutely experts at safeguarding pupils against bullying, but we don’t really say the same for the staff.

We are also not surprised, though nonetheless dismayed, to see the disingenuous nonsense trotted out by some schools' management in order to justify their use of gagging clauses, in which they conflate legality with morality. Their wish to silence former staff has absolutely nothing to do with access to private student data and everything to do with protecting the school’s reputation against potentially damaging disclosures from a large number of disgruntled former employees.

Employees often just wanted to “move on” from a situation, rather than face an employment tribunal and its related cost. Overseas schools tend to use the law of the land to their advantage to silence any voices for a fair treatment or to fight an injustice.

Some Principals tend to use every (masked or blatant) trick to intimidate their staff into submission. Bullied teachers are being encouraged to sign settlements with gagging clauses that mask the true scale of the problem in their schools.
These settlements often have a non-disclosure agreement in them. This masks the scale of the problem, and conveniently sidesteps the grievance process against the perpetrators, which are often management, as we know.

Those who go through the grievance process rather than settle their dispute are very brave individuals whose achievement must be celebrated.

It is our belief that that WCC will be dishing out contracts with explicit clauses that will prevent any future criticism or grievances process. Mark these words. Your free silence now will become a forced one in the coming days. If you think you are there just for the pay package you will soon realise that it is now a heavy price to pay for your freedom of expression but -above all-  your own dignity and integrity.

In the mean time, enjoy the daily freebies with best wishes from Snipper, Robocop, Tintin, Groot, Jitters, Nil and Unohu.