Assembly subpoena takes gag off former WeWork employee
SACRAMENTO — A Bay Area woman told state lawmakers Tuesday that she was grateful the Assembly issued its first subpoena in nearly two decades so she could speak in support of legislation that its author calls a possible tool for victims of sex harassment.
“Without it, I risk being sued for telling you the truth of my experience,” said Tara Zoumer.
Zoumer did not allege she was the target of sex discrimination when she was an associate community manager at the multibillion-dollar startup WeWork, which rents office space to entrepreneurs. Instead, she claimed that the firm had wrongly fired her after a series of events stemming from her complaint that employees at the company were overworked.
But it took a legislative subpoena to free her from a legal muzzle that prevented her from speaking publicly. The state bill’s author says that muzzle is the same one that silences many women who can’t take their employers to court for alleged sexual harassment and discrimination be-
cause of arbitration agreements they’re forced to sign as a condition of getting or keeping their jobs.
The bill, AB3080 by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, D-San Diego, passed the Assembly Judiciary Committee on a 6-3 vote along party lines Tuesday, with Democrats supporting and Republicans opposing. It now goes to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, which Gonzalez Fletcher chairs.
Zoumer said she was living paycheck to paycheck in 2015 while working in Berkeley at WeWork, “where my title was vague and my salary was low, but I was excited to be part of a growing company.” But she said she soon began to feel that the company was exploiting employees by requiring them to work far more hours than they were paid.
She said she reported to WeWork executives that the company was understaffed and that employees were overworked and stressed.
“I was met with a common Silicon Valley answer: ‘We are a startup. We are figuring these things out,’ ” she said.
Zoumer said she began talking to co-workers about filing a class-action lawsuit claiming that they were misclassified as salaried workers when they should be paid by the hour. She said a few weeks later, the company required employees to sign new contracts that included an arbitration agreement that waived their ability to file a class-action suit. When she refused to sign the waiver, she said, she was fired.
“In one day I watched a company take away people’s rights to fight in their own courts and as a collective unit,” she said.
A spokesman for WeWork declined to comment Tuesday.
Zoumer filed a lawsuit against WeWork and reached a settlement that included a nondisclosure agreement barring her from speaking publicly.
The Assembly served Zoumer with a subpoena Monday that freed her to speak at the public hearing in the Capitol. Zoumer said she was willing to testify, but faced a potential lawsuit and financial damages if she broke her nondisclosure agreement without being subpoenaed.
The summons was the first issued by the Legislature since 2001, when lawmakers tried to force Enron officials to testify in a Senate committee about energy market manipulation in the state.
Gonzalez Fletcher said subpoenas could become a tool for allowing victims of sexual harassment, discrimination and wage theft to talk freely despite settlements stemming from forced arbitration agreements.
“This was an unprecedented move,” Gonzalez Fletcher said. “The problem is we have NDAs (nondisclosure agreements) and so we don’t have a lot of victims, if you will, of these requirements that can come and testify.”
Under AB3080, companies could still ask workers to voluntarily sign arbitration waivers, but would be barred from retaliating against those who decline. The bill would not void arbitration agreements that have already been signed.
The California Chamber of Commerce has placed AB3080 on its annual list of “job killers” in the Legislature. The chamber argues that it will lead to more lawsuits against employers.
“Employers utilize arbitration not because they think they are going to get some advantage against the employees,” said Jennifer Barrera, senior vice president at the California Chamber of Commerce. “They utilize arbitration as a uniform way in which to resolve disputes to avoid litigation costs and attorney fees.”
Melody Gutierrez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mgutierrez @sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @MelodyGutierrez