The federal Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act (EFAA) of 2022 allows a plaintiff alleging sexual harassment to opt out of an enforceable arbitration agreement. In some California cases, the plaintiffs’ bar has included sexual harassment claims alongside other workplace claims in an effort to invoke the EFAA and avoid arbitration.
The strategy has worked at times, but courts have begun to draw limits. The Northern District of California recently articulated a limiting principle: simply labeling a set of facts as “sexual harassment” is insufficient to invoke the EFAA (decision here). Rather, the court held that a plaintiff must plausibly allege conduct that actually constitutes sexual harassment under governing law before the EFAA applies.
What Happened
The plaintiff, a former product manager, alleged that a male colleague subjected her to a pattern of gender-based misconduct in the workplace. She claimed he routinely used slang terms for sexual… Read the complete article here...
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