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posted by martyb on Monday July 24 2017, @01:13PM   Printer-friendly
from the no-bad-news-must-be-good-news...-right? dept.

Last October, AngelList, a company that helps tech start-ups raise money and hire employees, held an office retreat. In the Hollywood Hills, far from Silicon Valley, the firm's mostly male staff mingled poolside with bikini-clad women who had been invited to the event.

Before the afternoon was over, Babak Nivi, a founder and board member at AngelList, said things that made Julie Ruvolo, a contractor, uncomfortable about working at the company. His comments included a suggestion that the women, who were not employees, warm up the pool by jumping in and rubbing their bodies together. The incident was described by two entrepreneurs who were told about it in the weeks after it occurred but were not authorized to speak about it.

Precisely what occurred at the Hollywood Hills event and the details of the agreement are not publicly known. Several weeks after the party, each side signed a nondisparagement clause as part of a settlement, the two people said. And neither Ms. Ruvolo nor AngelList are permitted to talk about what happened that day.

As more harassment allegations come to light, employment lawyers say nondisparagement agreements have helped enable a culture of secrecy. In particular, the tech start-up world has been roiled by accounts of workplace sexual harassment, and nondisparagement clauses have played a significant role in keeping those accusations secret. Harassers move on and harass again. Women have no way of knowing their history. Nor do future employers or business partners.

Source: http://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/21/abuses-hide-in-the-silence-of-non-disparagement-agreements.html

Related: Silicon Valley Women Frankly Describe Sexual Harassment


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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by Thexalon on Monday July 24 2017, @04:12PM (3 children)

    by Thexalon (636) on Monday July 24 2017, @04:12PM (#543746)

    If your justice departments are really this thick to let such things stand, you are already toast.

    The judiciary has indeed decided to let such things stand.

    For example, in consumer contracts like EULAs and cell phone service agreements, it is now perfectly legal to make it essentially impossible for the consumer to sue in the event of a breach by the company. And don't think that had anything to do with Donald Trump: The key case, AT&T vs Concepcion [wikipedia.org], was decided in 2011. Instead, a consumer who is wronged by a company they are doing business with must take their case to binding private arbitration, where the arbitrator is picked by the company and the maximum penalty is what the consumer had paid the company for their services.

    One tactic that's come out of this: Companies dealing with consumers will sometimes charge all their customers an extra amount (say, $30) for no reason. If the customer calls to complain about it, they'll stall the customer with false promises until the credit card chargeback period is up. If the consumer doesn't give up after a while of that and actually starts down the path of arbitration, then they'll refund that particular customer to shut them up, thus pocketing $30 times the number of people who didn't try arbitration for providing nothing but aggravation to the customer.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 24 2017, @05:04PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 24 2017, @05:04PM (#543768)

    Yup, white collar crime gets a big pass because its wrapped around a bunch of semi-legal bullshit. Greedy humans are making this planet worse and worse. The problem is somehow getting worse with cynicism and greed spreading to every aspect of our lives.

    • (Score: 2) by frojack on Monday July 24 2017, @05:25PM

      by frojack (1554) on Monday July 24 2017, @05:25PM (#543781) Journal

      white collar crime gets a big pass because its wrapped around a bunch of semi-legal bullshit.

      No, its fully legal by this time [americanbar.org] and has been for almost a decade.

      The problem is somehow getting worse with cynicism

      Such as your's in the above post?

      Bitching about the level of bitching seems , at best unhelpful.

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  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday July 24 2017, @08:55PM

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Monday July 24 2017, @08:55PM (#543875)

    So, AT&T pulled this crap on me about 20 years ago, you would think that companies that do such things would get a business crippling reputation.

    Somehow, that doesn't happen.

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