WA law restricts noncompete agreements. They keep popping up anyway

Mark Westphal muted his video call, swiveled around in his black office chair and sternly whispered “Stop” to his barking puppy. The fuzzy bernedoodle flopped onto a blanket but continued barking. Plush toys in the shape of dinosaurs and monkeys littered the floor. Nearby, a cane leaned against the wall of his home office.

Westphal swiveled back to his meeting. A vendor in South America appeared on screen and asked a question about the components of a particular wheelchair model. Westphal explained that while most chairs are made of titanium, they can be customized with carbon fiber footplates, leg rests, and casters to fit the customer’s measurements. A woman on the call translated his response into Spanish.

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Westphal’s former employer, a competing wheelchair manufacturer called Permobil, has sued him in federal court in an attempt to force him out of his job and reap monetary damages. They allege he took top-secret company information to their main competitor but have yet to produce much evidence and remain vague about the supposed information.

The case hinges on Westphal’s former employment contract, which contained a clause stating that he would not accept a job with a competitor for 12 months after leaving the company. Known as noncompete agreements, these clauses have recently come under regulatory scrutiny for the power they give employers to bind workers’ job mobility and bargaining power. Once limited to high-level executives and specialized fields like engineering and medicine, noncompete clauses have proliferated widely across industries, becoming boilerplate contract language in fast-food and warehouse jobs.

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https://www.cascadepbs.org/investigations/2024/11/wa-law-restricts-noncompete-agreements-they-keep-popping-anyway