Do volunteers count as workers under a settlement agreement confidentiality clause?

[NuthatchesAndWoodpeckers]

I have a settlement agreement with an employer due to them breaching employment law. It was very amicable actually, it was due to ignorance and not deliberate, and they paid me what they should have done.

The agreement includes the usual clause surrounding confidentiality reading: "The Company shall not
authorise or encourage any of its officers, employees or workers to make any adverse
or derogatory comment about the Employee or to do anything that shall, or may, bring
her into disrepute."

There is the usual subsequent clause that they "The parties are permitted to make a disclosure or comment that would otherwise be prohibited by the above if, where necessary and appropriate, to officers, employees or workers provided that they agree to keep
the information confidential".

I have been shown two emails written by a member of the board to two volunteers that makes the factually untrue statement that I endangered the business financially. That this is untrue is easily proved.

This clearly is an adverse comment and brings me into disrepute.

The volunteers who received these emails are not officers of the board. Legally, can volunteers fall under the definition of 'workers'? From a cursory look I don't believe they do.

If they do not, am I correct that this member of the board has breached the confidentiality clause of the settlement agreement? If so, do I have any recourse to insist they retract this statement?

Look up the recent case Groom vs MCA, it may help clarify the position

I have read about that and I'm not sure it clarifies things as the situation seems different in that despite being a volunteer he also received payment. These volunteers do not receive any payments whatsoever and my reading is if no payments are involved then they cannot be classed as workers.

I don't know the law on this but clearly someone has breached something @NuthatchesAndWoodpeckers because even if the company is trying to use the subsequent clause to denigrate you, it should be kept confidential and it obviously hasn't as you know about it.
Whether volunteers are legally classed as workers or not I would be submitting a formal complaint to the board of trustees along with your evidence that the statement is untrue.

@NuthatchesAndWoodpeckers I think the status of the person who made the disclosure is the relevant factor rather than the recipients. It’s also potentially a breach of GDPR - not accurate and unlawful processing of personal data.

I would seek legal advice.

I am not sure a case such as Groom v MCA is analogous. Whilst the terminology being discussed in the same ie meaning of worker, the context is very different (we’re not talking about workers rights and compensation in particular statutes etc) and I think it would be a reasonable interpretation in this context the plain meaning of worker includes a volunteer and that the alternative eg “employee” was not chosen.

However, I would agree with @Redrosesposiesthat the much easier breach to point to is whether sharing the information was “necessary and appropriate” and whether the recipients of the information had agreed to keep it confidential. That’s a much cleaner argument than a debate over the status of volunteers and what was intended by “worker” in this context.

I volunteer and I had to fill in a Right to Work form so yes it is unpaid work and I am a worker. I also signed a confidentiality agreement because I see a lot of sensitive information.

Isn’t the main point that the employer is defaming the OP by stating untruths to the volunteers? Would that be actionable in a tribunal?

I would definitely get the solicitor who did your SA to write to them with copies of the emails saying they are in breach and to confirm that whoever received the emails has now had the correct information and the volunteers have been removed or retrained