Bolthouse Farms Adopts Less Restrictive NDA Policy To Protect Employees

All Food Companies Should Follow Their Lead Given Shifting Landscape

I am happy to end 2022 with more good news. Over the past several months, I have been helping the food and agriculture company Bolthouse Farms to loosen their NDA policy with the goal of protecting their employees from workplace abuses. I am happy to report the results of that effort in an article I published at Forbes.com. Here are a few excerpts from the article:

Bolthouse Farms announced Friday that it is adopting a new NDA policy modeled on the Washington State law, which is the strongest in the nation. With this step, Bolthouse Farms now becomes the first food or agriculture company to take a public stand on this important issue.

Bolthouse Farms is somewhat unique among food companies for employing several types of employees: agricultural, manufacturing, warehousing and logistics, sales, and administrative office staff. Earlier this year, the company acquired the juice brand, Evolution Fresh, from Starbucks.

While Bolthouse Farms has seasonal operations in Washington State, most of its operations are in California. From a compliance standpoint they already are required to follow Washington law for its Washington employees, and California law for its California employees. But instead of having a piecemeal state by state policy, the company decided to apply the strongest policy across the board.

Iveth Adriana Plascencia, the company’s Labor & Employment Counsel, explained to me: “It was important that we ensured uniform and maximum protection for all our 3,000 employees, be it an agricultural employee in California or an operations manager in Washington.”

Plascencia further explained why Bolthouse Farms did this: “Because we feel it is the right thing to do. While California law has also restricted the use of NDAs, we decided to adopt Washington State’s stronger policy, to ensure uniform and maximum protection for all our employees, regardless of where they are based.”

For the Bolthouse Farms own attorneys, this was not an intuitive decision; in fact, Plascencia had some reservations about the changes based on her years of experience and training as a lawyer working inside companies. Matthew Ayres, Bolthouse Farms’ Senior Vice President & General Counsel, challenged Plascencia by asking, “Why not do this? Sunlight is the best disinfectant. We will manage the consequences because our employees will be better served by this change.”

This move is a very big deal, especially for a California-based company. That is because the Washington State law is broader in scope and draws a clear line versus the California law, which allows for more interpretation and potential wriggle room.

In addition, the Washington State law treats non-disparagement clauses (not speaking negatively) the same as non-disclosure clauses, so non-disparagement clauses are not allowed either. Bolthouse Farms removed its previous section on non-disparagement entirely, to be in line with the Washington State policy’s intent.

The company still requires NDAs to protect trade secrets, and other intellectual property. This is how NDAs were originally meant to be applied. The change specifically relates to any illegal acts or other wrongdoing by the company.

Rachel Serrano, the company’s Senior Vice President of People, Culture & Capabilities, got to the heart of the issue, saying: “If there are problems our employees are facing, we want to know about it and address the issue. We don’t want to silence our people, whether they work in the fields, in the plant, or in our offices.”

Kudos to the leaders at Bolthouse Farms for doing the right thing. What is stopping your company or non-profit organization from lifting the veil of silence right now?