Brinks, without admitting or denying the agency’s findings, reached agreement with the SEC on Wednesday to settle charges that the confidentiality and nondisclosure agreements it required new employees to sign contained clauses that prohibited workers from disclosing confidential financial information to third parties without the company’s consent. The agreements contained language that threatened current and former employees with $75,000 in liquidated damages, as well as legal fees, if they failed to notify the company before disclosing such information.
The SEC requires such agreements contain an exemption for potential SEC whistleblowers. Brinks failed to provide this exemption in certain of its confidentiality agreements from 2015-19, the agency said. Brinks added the whistleblower exemption to confidentiality and nondisclosure agreements for executive-level employees in 2017, the SEC said, but not to agreements with all Brinks employees until April 2019.
Source: Brinks fined $400K over restrictive whistleblower language in contracts | Article | Compliance Week
