{"id":698,"date":"2014-10-24T14:39:37","date_gmt":"2014-10-24T14:39:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/jimmy-johns-non-compete-enforceable-georgia-law\/"},"modified":"2014-10-24T14:39:37","modified_gmt":"2014-10-24T14:39:37","slug":"jimmy-johns-non-compete-enforceable-georgia-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/jimmy-johns-non-compete-enforceable-georgia-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Jimmy John\u2019s Non-Compete Enforceable Under Georgia Law?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A recent article in the Huffington Post<\/em> ridiculed the use of non-competes by Jimmy John\u2019s for its employees and those of its franchisees, including low-wage sandwich makers and delivery drivers. See<\/em> \u201cJimmy John\u2019s Makes Low-Wage Workers Sign \u2018Oppressive\u2019 Non-Compete Agreements\u201d (Huff Post Business, October 13, 2014; http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2014\/10\/13\/jimmy-johns-non-compete_n_5978180.html<\/a>).<\/p>\n

In the article, Huffington Post<\/em> takes Jimmy John\u2019s to task for imposing non-competes on its low-wage workers that prohibit the workers from working for competitors within three miles of any Jimmy John\u2019s location.\u00a0 Apparently, the definition of \u201ccompetitor\u201d in the agreements goes well beyond the Subways of the world.\u00a0 It encompasses any business that is near a Jimmy John\u2019s location and derives more than 10% of its revenue from selling sandwiches.<\/p>\n

This got me thinking as to whether Jimmy John\u2019s non-compete would pass muster under Georgia\u2019s New Restrictive Covenant\u2019s Act (the \u201cAct\u201d).\u00a0 One of the selling points for the Act espoused by its proponents was that while non-competes would be more liberally enforced against executive-level employees, they would not be enforceable at all against lower level employees.\u00a0 To supposedly accomplish this goal, the Act states that it is only applicable to certain types of employees, including \u201cexecutive employees,\u201d \u201ckey employees\u201d and certain others involved in research and development or who are in \u201cpossession of selective or specialized skills, learning, or abilities or customer contacts, customer information, or confidential information who have obtained such skills, learning, abilities, contacts, or information by reason of having worked for an employer.\u201d\u00a0 O.C.G.A. \u00a7 13-8-51.<\/p>\n

The Act also states that non-competes \u201cshall not be permitted against any employee who does not, in the course of\u00a0 his or her employment: (1) customarily and regularly solicit for the employer customers or prospective customers; or (2) customarily and regularly engage in making sales or obtaining orders or contracts or products or services to be performed by others; (3) perform the following duties: (A) Have a primary duty of managing the enterprise in which the employee is employed or of a customarily recognized department or subdivision thereof; (B) Customarily and regularly direct the work of two or more other employees; and (C) Have the authority to hire or fire other employees or have particular weight given to suggestions and recommendations as to the hiring, firing, advancement, promotion, or any other change of status of other employees; or (4) Perform the duties of a key employeeor of a professional.\u201d\u00a0 O.C.G.A. \u00a713-8-53(a).<\/p>\n

Thus, getting back to our Jimmy John\u2019s example, is the worker at the cash register at a sub shop or who delivers sandwiches for the shop covered by the Act?\u00a0 While the proponents of the Act claim that these types of people should not be covered, it is certainly possible that a court could construe the Act to cover such workers.\u00a0 For example, the cashier and the delivery person both have customer contacts that they gain by working for Jimmy John\u2019s.\u00a0 They both may also have \u201ccustomer information.\u201d\u00a0 This would bring them within the definition of \u201ckey employee\u201d contained in O.C.G.A. section 13-8-51(8).\u00a0 Moreover, the statement of exclusion in the Act likely does not apply, as those who answer the phones at the shop or those who work the cash register customarily and regularly engage in making sales for products (the sandwiches) to be performed by others (the people actually making the sandwiches).<\/p>\n

The Huffington Post<\/em> article illustrates the absurdity of the Jimmy John\u2019s agreement.\u00a0 An example is provided of a student who works at a Jimmy John\u2019s in Illinois during high school.\u00a0 Once he leaves for college at the University of Alabama, the Jimmy John\u2019s non-compete forecloses him from working just about anywhere in Tuscaloosa that serves sandwiches, including, in theory the school cafeteria, because most of those places fall within three miles of a Jimmy John\u2019s.<\/p>\n

It appears the concerns expressed in the Huffington Post<\/em> article are valid concerns in Georgia under the Act. Of course, whether any court would enforce such an absurd non-compete against such a worker has yet to be seen, but this merely points out that the wording of Georgia\u2019s new statute is very broad and likely captures far more workers than the drafters say they intended.[1]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1] 37 members of Congress recently requested the U.S. Department of Labor and the Federal Trade Commission to\u00a0 look into Jimmy John\u2019s practice of requiring \u201crank and file\u201d workers to sign non-competes as a condition of employment.\u00a0 Whether either of those federal government agencies will do so has yet to be seen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent article in the Huffington Post ridiculed the use of non-competes by Jimmy John\u2019s for its employees and those of its franchisees, including low-wage sandwich makers and delivery drivers. See \u201cJimmy John\u2019s Makes Low-Wage Workers Sign \u2018Oppressive\u2019 Non-Compete Agreements\u201d (Huff Post Business, October 13, 2014; http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2014\/10\/13\/jimmy-johns-non-compete_n_5978180.html). In the article, Huffington Post takes Jimmy John\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"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":[20,25,17,22],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIs Jimmy John\u2019s Non-Compete Enforceable Under Georgia Law?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Huffington Post article looks at Jimmy John\u2019s non-competes on its workers that prohibit them from working for competitors within 3 miles of a Jimmy John\u2019s.\" \/>\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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