Seven former MCC employees launch petition, “MCC, stop harming your workers and partners now!”

June 11, 2024. Former MCC employees publish an open letter and a related petition.

The petition asks 19 questions of MCC.

NDAs, settlements, and hush money

1. Does MCC condone paying money to current or former workers in return for their agreement to waive grievances or to be silent about abuse? 

2. Will you publicly invite those who may have signed a non-disparagement or non-disclosure agreement to come forward and share their stories in a safe environment without fear of retaliation of any kind?

3. Will you provide your constituency with a transparent report that shows, since 2010: 

· How many MCC workers were appointed or hired;

· How many MCC workers had their employment terminated early by MCC;

· In how many of these cases workers were terminated for medical reasons;

· How many MCC workers resigned before the end of their term;

· How many workers signed non-disparagement or non-disclosure agreements at termination in exchange for a settlement;

· How many investigations MCC has conducted into worker grievances and complaints, and who has carried out these investigations;

· How many investigations MCC has conducted into allegations of unjust firing, and who has carried out these investigations;

· Funds spent on legal fees related to employment terminations;

· Funds spent on settlements for terminated employees (beyond the amounts of transitional living support or resettlement allowance required by policy #7422)?

In all these cases, please provide numbers by year and by MCC entity/region (MCC Great Lakes, MCC Manitoba, International Program region [e.g., East Africa and Sahel], etc.…), and by worker type (International Service Worker, salaried staff in North America, salaried staff outside North America [National Staff], IVEP, SALT, and YAMEN).

4. Will you publicly commit to end the practice of settlement NDAs (i.e., stop asking workers to sign non-disparagement or non-disclosure agreements in cases of discrimination, harassment and bullying, and use non-disclosure agreements in general for no other purpose than that of protecting intellectual property and trade secrets)?

Medical leave

5. What is the medical leave policy for international workers? How long can they be off work while sick without fear of being fired?

6. Does MCC condone firing workers who are on medical leave?

Complaint and grievance processes

7. What is the process that MCC currently follows when an Executive Director or HR Director is accused of misconduct? How are complainants protected from retaliation in this specific case, given the HR Directors’ involvement in all employee terminations?

8. How can MCC workers report about abuse that has occurred within a process that MCC has deemed confidential?

9. Does MCC think it is acceptable for the supervisor of a complainant to be part of the case management team investigating a complaint?

Investigation and restitution

10. Are you ready to listen non-defensively and respectfully to (former) workers’ experiences of abuse, without legal threats, with the assumption that they are sharing their experiences truthfully and in good faith? 

11. Will you commit to a transparent, external, independent third-party investigation into our complaints as well as the complaints of others who may come forward? (To be clear, you have a legal responsibility to ensure that a fair and impartial investigation is completed into allegations as serious as these. We are not talking about a third-party investigator chosen by MCC, whose conclusions you can bury or ignore, but an investigation that is carried out by an external, survivor-centered and trauma-informed firm chosen by MCC constituents, whose main goal is not to protect MCC from liability but to pursue justice and rebuild trust between MCC and its stakeholders as well as those whom it has harmed.)

12. Will you commit to making a full report of such an investigation publicly available, following the example of other faith-based organizations (such as the Guidepost Solutions report of their investigation into the response to sexual abuse allegations by the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, available at https://mennoniteabuseprevention.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Guidepost-Solutions-report-2022-Southern-Baptist-Convention.pdf?

13. If our allegations are determined to be founded, will you make things right for those who have been harmed without muzzling them (through, for example, public apologies and financial restitution that are not conditional on a non-disparagement or non-disclosure agreement)?

14. If our allegations are determined to be founded, will you take immediate steps to prevent further abuse within MCC (for example, by taking disciplinary action against those found guilty of misconduct, by revising policies, and by changing structures where needed)?

Transparency of MCC policies

15. Will you make your policies available so your constituency can read them? 

16. Will you welcome feedback on your policies in the form of an in-depth third-party review of all MCC policies including those related to worker care and protection, conflict resolution and grievance, workplace harassment and violence, worker termination, and any others that the reviewers deem relevant? 

17. Will you make the report of this review publicly available?

Board accessibility

18. Are members of the public free to contact MCC board members (not just chairs) with concerns? If so, how?

19. Can you commit to making contact information publicly available for all board members?

The petition has been signed by over 1500 people as of January 2025. Over 100 have left comments of support. Sign and add your comment here.