Employers are using "super-gags" to keep people quiet - in spite of a 1998 legal provision preventing the use of confidentiality clauses, the Independent on Sunday said.
The Public Interest Disclosure Act says confidentiality cannot be used to prevent the disclosure of information in the public interest. Independent MP Dr Richard Taylor is to raise the issue in parliament this week, the paper said.
Allegations about super-gags surfaced in the British Medical Journal last week. The paper quotes the whistleblower organisation, Public Concern at Work, as claiming that two-thirds of severance agreements have non-disclosure clauses. It says that staff accept the agreements rather than fighting suspensions and disciplinary actions through to the end.
Peter Gooderham, a lecturer in law and bioethics at the Manchester University, said: "The legal protection for whistleblowers does not work. The NHS is littered with whistleblowers whose lives have been damaged or destroyed. For protection, the whistleblower must have a reasonable belief in their accuracy, and the disclosure must be made in good faith."
The BMA said it was dealing with some 15 new whistle-blowing cases from the last three months.
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