Jimmy John's Makes Low-Wage Workers Sign 'Oppressive' Noncompete Agreements

[KamaAina]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/13/jimmy-johns-non-compete_n_5978180.html

If you're considering working at a Jimmy John's sandwich shop, you may want to read the fine print on your job application.

A Jimmy John's employment agreement provided to The Huffington Post includes a "non-competition" clause that's surprising in its breadth. Noncompete agreements are typically reserved for managers or employees who could clearly exploit a business's inside information by jumping to a competitor. But at Jimmy John's, the agreement apparently applies to low-wage sandwich makers and delivery drivers, too.

By signing the covenant, the worker agrees not to work at one of the sandwich chain's competitors for a period of two years following employment at Jimmy John's. But the company's definition of a "competitor" goes far beyond the Subways and Potbellys of the world. It encompasses any business that's near a Jimmy John's location and that derives a mere 10 percent of its revenue from sandwiches....

It isn't clear what sort of trade secrets a low-wage sandwich artist might be privy to that would warrant such a contract. A Jimmy John's spokeswoman said the company wouldn't comment.

[bluesbassman]

1. Stacking order for the ham, lettuce, tomato, and pickle is critical.

[Thor_MN]

14. As is the meat to condiment to bread ratio

[nilram]

18. And mustard goes by the meat, mayo by the lettuce.

Shhh, don't let JJ know I told you!

[KamaAina]

33. Neither mustard nor mayo belongs on a sandwich

or anything else, for that matter.

[locdlib]

2. It's BS. Jimmy John has no way of enforcing this stupid agreement. It's just a ploy to

intimidate employees. Once upon a time I worked for an absolutely horrid MRI company. That job, in a word, sucked, so I quit. They did have everyone to sign a noncompete agreement. Guess what? Before I quit that job I had already secured another job with a competitor who was directly across the street from them. What happened? Nothing.

[WinstonSmith4740]

10. SO true!!

Those non-competitive agreements aren't worth the paper they're written on. Like you said, it's just a way to intimidate employees. Once you leave a place of employment, they can't keep you from earning a living.

[Ms. Toad]

11. Actually, they can.

As long as they can establish that working for a competitor is likely to harm them (you have trade secrets, uncommon skills, etc.) and the geographic region covered, and the duration of the non-compete are reasonable, noncompetes are legally enforceable.

Jimmy John's drivers - probably not. Anyone with a driver's license and relatively clean driving record is fungible. But a manager there - quite possibly, within reasonable geographic limits for a reasonable period of time.

[quakerboy]

12. If its legally valid, they do. But I mostly agree.

They can sue.

The chances that they would are low, for a low wage worker, though.

Then again, Id say theres a fair chance that these are not valid, depending on the state. I wouldnt put it past some states to make it legal to slam low wage hourly workers this way, but some states seem to have minimum requirements for who can validly be held to a noncompete.

[Jacoby365]

3. Some employees can develop a good rapport

with regular customers who would be happy to follow them to a nearby competitor. I suspect this might have something to do with it.

[Lochloosa]

6. I suspect it has nothing to do with it.

They do it for the worst reason. They can.

[SoapBox]

17. I've got to agree with you...

We're talking about people making sandwiches, not Bill Gross the bond fund manager.

[madville]

4. Pretty much unenforceable

I signed a bunch of them over the years, never thought much about them.

[Gormy Cuss]

7. Yep.

It's mostly a scare tactic. This one is too broad.

Are they enforceable?

Generally speaking, yes. Courts once did not enforce non competition agreements, viewing them as unlawful restraints on trade. Today, however, courts will enforce non-competition agreements if:

the employer proves that it has a legitimate business interest to protect by restricting its employees' right to compete against it;

the restriction on the employee's right to compete is no greater than that necessary to protect the employer's business interest; and

the covenant not to compete is supported by consideration, meaning that the employee received something in exchange for it.


Every case turns on its own facts. Judges who enforce a non-competition agreement must balance the protection of the employer's business interest against the employee's right to earn a living, as well as other factors, such as whether the restrictions will harm the public.

[MannyGoldstein]

5. Disgusting. nt

[unblock]

8. why not just bring back slavery? choose your master when you're 18. that's enough freedom, right?

[DirkGently]

9. Whaaaa? That is completely out of bounds.

Non-competes are to keep an engineer from taking her work to another outfit in the middle of a project or something. Not to keep food workers from making other ... food.

Highly unlikely anything like that could be enforced, but no less evil if they're really trying this.

[PowerToThePeople]

13. Let jimmy john's try to take an ex employee to civil court over this

They will go far I am sure...

[SheilaT]

15. This definitely needs to be challenged in court.

[Alkene]

16. An attempt to indenture the labor force...

which amounts to little more than dick-wagging. Enforcement can't possibly be cost effective, or the best public relations move.

[Shoulders of Giants]

19. This couldn't possible survive a court challenge.

If it does, then our country is finished.

[Yo_Mama]

20. Is this enforceable?

Really?

[AnAzulTexas]

21. come on jimmy john or wtf ever your real name is

I know you're a prick republican, but get real. These folks are making near minimum wage and you're an asshole to the people making the money for you. Earlier responses are correct; why not just reenact slavery. Is that what you want? I tend to eat jj's at least once a week, but if he keeps his bullshit up, I'll just go home and make my own subpar sammies.

[MillennialDem]

22. Go ahead and let them sue

A low wage worker.

You can't get blood from a turnip. It's not worth JJs court costs when the worker says "I ain't got nothing you can take"

[Nevernose]

32. I once got sued for a million dollars

While I was a minimum wage employee. Besides the fact that I'd done nothing wrong, I was a near-minimum wage single parent with a family that occasionally lived in their car. What the hell could they have possibly done to me than my life already was?

[mountain grammy]

23. That is really outrageous. Only one answer to end the madness; UNION!

[Gidney N Cloyd]

24. Hey, DU Lawyers, could a low level JJ current/recentlyformer employee INITIATE a court test of this?

[missingthebigdog]

27. Only if Jimmy John's tried to enforce the clause

Or the employee could show that another employer refused to hire them based upon the clause.

[Calista241]

25. Probably some corporate lawyer trying to justify his job.

This is totally 100% unenforceable. Non-competes are generally only there to try and prevent the transfer of a company's intellectual property to a competitor. And even then, they're not worth the paper they're written on.

[annm4peace]

26. Jimmy John's workers launch viral campaign for paid sick days

http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/news/2014/09/02/jimmy-johns-workers-launch-viral-campaign-paid-sick-days

Three years ago, Jimmy John’s fired six Minneapolis sandwich workers for putting up over 3,000 posters publicizing a grisly truth: workers at the chain are routinely forced by company policy and low pay to come to work and make sandwiches while sick.
Following a National Labor Relations Board ruling last week ordering the company to reinstate the unlawfully fired whistle-blowers, the workers have escalated their campaign for paid sick days, this time putting up the now-famous “Sandwich Test” posters coast to coast in a social media challenge.

[Dawson Leery]

28. Shop somewhere else.

With that said, fat, grease, and sugar are not "trade secrets".

[Recursion]

29. Good luck enforcing that, JJ... (nt)

[Blue Owl]

30. JJ's precious corporate identity is all that and a bag of chips

[brewens]

31. Our local Walmart tried to backball a guy. He worked for them for seven years and was shipping and

receiving manager. He had great raport with all the delivery guys and that got him hooked up with a Frito Lay route delivery gig. That was just running vacation routes at first. That's pretty much starting out at the bottom of the delivery driver/sales career path. Pretty sad that it had to be more money and a better opportunity than he was looking at with Wally World.

When he left, after giving them his two week notice, management called Frito Lay and told them he was not allowed to deliver to any of their stores in the region! WTF? Like he'd have some kind of insider information that could allow him to rip them off? That was purely out of spite! If he could have proven that, I'd think that may have been a lawsuit in the making. Frito Lay did have him out there working after that though, so it didn't cost him that job. I suspect Walmart backed off on that one. That could very well have blown up in that Walmart managers face if a Frito Lay corporate guy called Walmart corporate and blew the whistle.