On the final day of this year’s General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI) the report of the Comprise Agreements Task Group was discussed and the draft Employee Compromise Agreement Policy, that was contained in the Task Group’s report, was approved.
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Use of NDAs considered at the General Assembly
The policy included the use of Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA) which stated that they would not be used as a “matter of course” and set out “the limited circumstances in which an NDA will be considered.”
The Task Group’s report was part of the fourth of the General Council’s six reports to this year’s General Assembly. Addressing the Assembly, PCI’s Director of Operation, Ken Swarbrick, explained that it was the Special Assembly of December 2025 that commissioned the Task Group to consider PCI’s use of Compromise Agreements, which may involve an NDAs.
Mr Swarbrick said, “That in spite of the negative picture that is often portrayed, there is a broad consensus throughout the legal profession and in the Employment Tribunal Office, that settlement agreements are a good thing. They’ve even been formalised by the Tribunal Office through a process called Judicial Mediation - which is a specifically designed and tribunal supported process to settle cases out of court by promoting Compromise Agreements…”
“The vast majority of employees will have no interaction with Compromise Agreements throughout their entire career. In a PCI context, our ‘level of usage’ numbers are included in the report - we have put agreements in place for less than 1.4% of employee exits in the last 5 years - 9 agreements compared to over 650 leavers.”
The Policy approved by the General Assembly set out the underlying principles and considered the use of NDAs, there governance and approval. The policy also recognised that the use of NDAs by a charity was a sensitive issue and they would not be used as a “matter of course”. It also set out “the limited circumstances in which an NDA will be considered…” These included at the request of the departing employee and to protect other parties to whom PCI has a duty of care.
Mr Swarbrick, Director of Operations explained that, “If we as an employer genuinely believe our staff have acted with integrity in carrying out their roles, then we have a moral duty and an ethical responsibility to protect them.
“The proposed policy is simply about providing you with the facility to protect the people who work here from one-sided presentations of disputed allegations, or worse from false and malicious allegations.”
The Director of Operations concluded by saying, “You are not being asked to approve a policy to facilitate deceit and cover-up - there are all sorts of protections to prevent that, both in existing law and in the governance processes built into the policy. You are being asked to assure your staff that you care about them and will protect them as they do their jobs.”
“…I will finish by noting that arguments against confidentiality clauses often turn to the Post Office Horizon scandal. It is no secret that confidentiality clauses were used as one tool amongst many to maliciously, unfairly and probably illegally attempt to silence postmasters. There can be no doubt that that whole issue was a horrific scandal, but brothers and sisters, we are not the Post Office."
Following the discussions on the resolution, which heard from different perspectives and from both sides of the debate, the draft Employee Compromise Agreement Policy was approved by the General Assembly.