Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) Trust is using confidentiality clauses to stop staff speaking out on bullying, a union has claimed.
Unison said it is concerned the organisation, which runs Queen's Medical Centre, has made "insufficient progress" since a CQC inspection uncovered a culture of bullying and racial discrimination at the trust in September last year.
Dave Ratchford, the union's East Midlands officer, said NUH inserted a clause which prevented individuals from sharing their situation with anyone when settlements were made.
Likening it to a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA), Mr Ratchford told Nottinghamshire Live: "This inevitably means that it is much harder to encourage others to come forward with their concerns and also that the public are kept in the dark about what staff are experiencing in the NHS."
The NHS trust said it was one of 30 to use settlement agreements, saying some require staff leaving the organisation not to share details of grievances "to preserve the privacy of all parties involved".
NUH, which was recently accused of comparing itself to other trusts rather than dealing with the issue of bullying, said mid-level managers would be up-skilled in response to the report, with Hull and East Yorkshire hospitals agreeing to support the trust.
However Mr Ratchford said it was lacking in commination with its staff.
"They are still telling us about what they have decided to do instead of engaging us in meaningful dialogue about what our members tell us the issues are," he said.
"We continue to call for the trust to engage with us meaningfully as the voice of thousands of NUH staff, so that we can work together to address these issues instead of telling us what they have already decided they are going to do.
"That has not worked so far and it is of deep concern to us that they are still relying on the same approach they had before the inspection."
Dr Neil Pease, chief people officer at NUH, said: “We cannot stress enough how much effort we are putting into tackling bullying, harassment and racism in our organisation.
"These behaviours are not acceptable and we are putting firm measures in place to make it easier for people to raise these concerns, and quickly resolve them for all parties involved.
“We recognise we have a way to go to build trust with our staff, but we are committed to addressing poor behaviours in the workplace and fostering a culture where all colleagues feel valued and treat one another with respect.”
A spokesperson added there are certain circumstances when a member of staff leaves an organisation, when a settlement agreement is used to protect all parties.
They said there is nothing in the document that prevents them from raising concerns, however some may require them not to share details of the grievance and subsequent investigations.
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