{"id":1138,"date":"2018-09-20T20:07:00","date_gmt":"2018-09-20T20:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wework-settlement-to-curb-non-competes-adds-to-growing-trend\/"},"modified":"2018-09-20T20:07:00","modified_gmt":"2018-09-20T20:07:00","slug":"wework-settlement-to-curb-non-competes-adds-to-growing-trend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wework-settlement-to-curb-non-competes-adds-to-growing-trend\/","title":{"rendered":"WeWork Settlement to Curb Non-Competes Adds to Growing Trend"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Recently, shared-office rental company WeWork reached a settlement with the attorney general (AG) of New York to end or limit WeWork\u2019s use of non-compete agreements for nearly all of its employees in the U.S.\u00a0 WeWork is an industry leader in the co-working industry, providing shared workspaces for lease by month and office services to entrepreneurs, startups, and other companies.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>WeWork is growing rapidly, with 287 locations internationally, 7,500 employees globally, and 3,300 employees in the U.S.\u00a0 Prior to the agreement with the New York AG, WeWork had its employees sign employment agreements containing non-compete clauses prohibiting workers from working for a competitor for 12 months after leaving WeWork.\u00a0 The non-compete agreements applied to all employees \u2013 including baristas, executive assistants and janitors \u2013 regardless of job duties, knowledge or access to trade secret or confidential information, or compensation.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Under the settlement, WeWork agreed to fully release over 1,400 U.S. employees from their non-compete agreements.\u00a0 For about 1,800 U.S. employees with managerial duties or specialized skills, WeWork agreed to revise their non-competes to reduce the restriction period from 12 to 6 months, to restrict the geographical area to a 15-mile radius, and to restrict the ban to the specific lines of business in which the employee worked.\u00a0 The non-compete agreements for about 100 executive level employees remained the same.<\/p>\n<p>The settlement ends a two-year long investigation by the New York attorney general who took the position that WeWork\u2019s non-competes imposed unreasonable restrictions on trade by going far beyond the intended limited uses of non-competes, such as to protect an employer\u2019s trade secrets and confidential information or prevent employees from taking specialized skills gained on the job to a competitor.\u00a0 The Illinois attorney general also closed an investigation into WeWork\u2019s non-competes as a result of the settlement.<\/p>\n<p>This investigation and subsequent settlement adds to a growing trend of attorneys general investigating and pushing to end or limit the use of non-compete and no-poaching restrictions on lower-wage and non-executive employees.\u00a0 We recently discussed <span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/non-competes-and-the-fast-food-drive-thru-window\/\">investigations launched by a group of state attorneys general into the use of no-poaching agreements by fast-food restaurants<\/a><\/span>.\u00a0 That investigation resulted in a settlement with the attorney general of the State of Washington in which Burger King, Papa John\u2019s, Denny\u2019s, and five other restaurant chains agreed to <span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2018\/07\/12\/628549616\/fast-food-chains-back-away-from-limits-on-whom-they-hire\">eliminate the use of no-poaching agreements by their franchisees<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>The abuse of non-competes and other restrictive covenants is becoming increasingly scrutinized as concerns over worker mobility and wage growth increase.\u00a0 As New York attorney general Barbara Underwood said, \u201ctoo often, noncompete agreements are misused, especially when it comes to low-wage workers \u2014 limiting employees\u2019 mobility and opportunity and preventing businesses from hiring the best person for the job.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We will continue to monitor this trend and its impact on the enforcement of non-competes and other restrictive covenants, including in Georgia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recently, shared-office rental company WeWork reached a settlement with the attorney general (AG) of New York to end or limit WeWork\u2019s use of non-compete agreements for nearly all of its employees in the U.S.\u00a0 WeWork is an industry leader in the co-working industry, providing shared workspaces for lease by month and office services to entrepreneurs, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_mo_disable_npp":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9],"tags":[113],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>WeWork Settlement to Curb Non-Competes Adds to Growing Trend<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For about 1,800 U.S. employees with managerial duties or specialized skills, WeWork agreed to revise their non-competes to reduce the restriction period from 12 to 6 months.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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