Bon Appetit cafeteria workers asked to sign mandatory arbitration agreements

Group provides food services at Google, other tech companies

As Google employees urge their company and others to end forced arbitration, the tech giant’s cafeteria workers are being asked to sign mandatory arbitration agreements.

Bon Appetit Management, a Palo Alto company that provides food services at many tech companies including Google, Oracle, Twitter and Uber, along with universities and museums, asked its workers to sign the agreements last week. A Bon Appetit spokeswoman said Thursday that the company has distributed the agreement “widely.”

One Google eatery worker who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution said Bon Appetit asked its employees to sign the agreements immediately, prompting some to ask if they could read the documents more closely first. If they don’t want to sign the agreements, they were told, they would have to submit statements explaining their reasons, the employee said.

“Bon Appetit has used arbitration agreements for a number of years,” the company spokeswoman said. The worker who spoke with this news organization has been in food services at Google for the past several years and said this was the first time he and his co-workers have been asked to sign the agreement.

When asked what would happen to workers who refused to sign the agreements, the Bon Appetit spokeswoman said the company “will address any questions raised by an employee about the arbitration agreement directly with the employee.”

When asked for comment Thursday, a Google spokeswoman pointed out that the company does not directly employ the Bon Appetit workers. She also referred to the company’s supplier code of conduct, which among other things asks Google suppliers to “embrace” non-discrimination, diversity and inclusion, and to forbid sexual harassment and abuse.

Last week, Google employees launched a campaign calling for companies to stop requiring employees to accept arbitration.

“Arbitration is ‘ forced’ when your employer requires you to sign away your right to go to court at the start of

“Google should take the lead in denouncing any supplier that forces arbitration for its employees.” — Tanuja Gupta, a leader of Googlers for Ending Forced Arbitration

your employment, before any legal dispute arises,” the group said during a daylong campaign on social media last Tuesday.

Asked to comment about Bon Appetit’s move, the group said it was “sadly” aware that contractors are also forcing their employees to sign away their rights to sue. The group’s campaign calls for no forced arbitration for temporary, vendor and contract employees, too.

“Google should take the lead in denouncing any supplier that forces arbitration for its employees,” said Tanuja Gupta, one of the leaders of Googlers for Ending Forced Arbitration, Wednesday night. “This means Google also has to end forced arbitration for its own full-time employees.”

Af ter thousands of Google employees around the world walked out in November to protest the way the company handles sexual harassment claims, the tech giant said it would end forced arbitration for individual cases of sexual harassment and assault for full-time employees. The Google campaigners say that change has yet to be reflected in their employee agreements, although Google said last week that it recently modified its offer letters.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported Thursday that Google has been urging the U. S. government to limit protections for employees who protest, including calling on the National Labor Relations Board to reinstate a ban on employees using their workplace email systems to organize.