Nondisclosure agreements
§ 5003-b. Nondisclosure agreements. Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, for any claim or cause of action, whether arising under common law, equity, or any provision of law, the factual foundation for which involves discrimination, in violation of laws prohibiting discrimination, including but not limited to, article fifteen of the executive law, in resolving, by agreed judgment, stipulation, decree, agreement to settle, assurance of discontinuance or otherwise, no employer, its officer or employee shall have the authority to include or agree to include in such resolution any term or condition that would prevent the disclosure of the underlying facts and circumstances to the claim or action unless the condition of confidentiality is the plaintiff's preference. Any such term or condition must be provided to all parties, and the plaintiff shall have twenty-one days to consider such term or condition. If after twenty-one days such term or condition is the plaintiff's preference, such preference shall be memorialized in an agreement signed by all parties. For a period of at least seven days following the execution of such agreement, the plaintiff may revoke the agreement, and the agreement shall not become effective or be enforceable until such revocation period has expired.
In settling a discrimination claim, the employer cannot force a term hiding the underlying facts unless confidentiality is the plaintiff's own preference. ★ The plaintiff gets 21 days to consider the term, and after signing has 7 days to revoke; the agreement isn't enforceable until the revocation period expires. ★
Marked in the text: penalties, time limits, sums of money. Editorial emphasis added by this edition; it does not appear in the statute as enacted.
This provision appears in Volume 2 — The JG-22 CPLR and in Volume 1 — The JG-22 in Plain English.