Rep. Maloney to Introduce Bills to Combat NDA Abuse Amid Commanders Probe

Josh Morga/USA TODAY

Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, the chairwoman of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Oversight and Reform, is introducing two bills “to rein in the abuse of non-disclosure, confidentiality, and non-disparagement agreements in the workplace and create new protections for employees whose professional images are used for illegitimate purposes.”

According to a press release about the legislation, this is as a result of the committee’s investigation into the Commanders. The months-long probe that began in October 2021 is looking into the franchise’s workplace culture, how the league handled misconduct reports, what the NFL’s standards should be and “legislative reforms needed to address these issues across the NFL and other workplaces,” according to the committee’s press release from earlier this month.

Rep. Maloney said the following in the press release about the legislation Friday.

“Despite the Commanders’ and the NFL’s enormous public platforms, they failed to adhere to a higher standard and serve as an examples for workplaces across the country. Our investigation has revealed significant gaps in existing federal law that allow employers to use legal agreements to prevent employees from speaking out about unlawful behavior in their workplaces and allow executives to use professional images for lewd and inappropriate purposes. The two bills introduced today would establish standards for employers to protect workers and encourage them to foster workplace cultures that aim to prevent—rather than conceal—workplace misconduct. I strongly believe that those responsible for the culture of harassment and abuse at the Washington Commanders must be held accountable, and that as lawmakers, we must to use our legislative powers to protect other employees from this serious misconduct.”

The two bills are called the Accountability for Workplace Misconduct Act and Professional Images Protection Act. The former concerns the abuse of NDAs, specifically “prohibiting employers from using these agreements to limit, prevent, or interfere with an employee’s ability to disclose harassment, discrimination, or retaliation to government agencies or Congress.” Additionally, it would set uniform requirements for how organizations operate workplace investigations. 

Meanwhile, the latter would ensure that employees have a say in the use of their images, requiring consent before professional images are taken or distributed and prohibiting the use of professional images for “illegitimate purposes.”

Further information about the two bills can be found at the bottom of the committee’s press release. 

During February’s hybrid roundtable with with several former employees of the franchise, Melanie Coburn, a former marketing executive and cheerleader, detailed how “lewd footage” from the cheerleader calendar shoots was edited together by the video department. The productions staff created “essentially a soft-porn video, soundtracked to Dan Snyder’s favorite bands” for the team owner, she said. 

The committee’s investigation was brought on after the Post published an article in July 2020 detailing workplace sexual harassment experienced by 15 former employees within the franchise. Snyder also faces several other accounts of misconduct, some of which are as follows:

• The Post previously reported that “lawyers and private investigators working on Snyder’s behalf took steps that potential witnesses … viewed as attempts to interfere with the NFL’s investigation.” The numerous alleged attempts to interfere included reaching a $1.6 million settlement with a former employee who described sexual misconduct by the co-owner and filing petitions to identify employees who had spoken to the Post.
• The committee held a hybrid roundtable with several former employees of the franchise, and former team employee Tiffani Johnston detailed new allegations that directly implicated Snyder, who denied the allegations, in a statement:

“I learned that placing me strategically by the owner at a work dinner after this networking event was not for me to discuss business, but to allow him to place his hand on my thigh under the table,” Johnston said in her opening statement. “I learned how to discreetly remove a man’s unwanted hand from my thigh at a crowded dinner table, at a crowded restaurant to avoid a scene. I learned that job survival meant I should continue my conversation with another co-worker rather than to call out Dan Snyder right then, in the moment.

“I also learned later that evening how to awkwardly laugh while Dan Snyder aggressively pushed me towards his limo with his hand on my lower back, encouraging me to ride with him to my car. I learned how to continue to say no even though a situation was getting more awkward, uncomfortable and physical.”

The NFL has shared documents with the committee, such as a Common Interest Agreement between the NFL and Washington and an engagement letter between lawyer Beth Wilkinson’s firm and the franchise. Here is a summary of what was found in the documents.

Additionally, the committee penned an explosive letter to the Federal Trade Commission, asserting that the Commanders and Snyder “may have engaged in a troubling, long-running, and potentially unlawful pattern of financial conduct that victimized thousands of team fans and the National Football League.” Here is more on the letter and evidence from the committee. 

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