The Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act (EFAA) exempts sexual harassment claims from arbitration. A California Court of Appeal has held that harassment based on an employee's sexual orientation qualifies as sexual harassment for the purposes of EFAA. The practical effect of this decision is that an employee’s claims for harassment based on their sexual orientation are now exempt from arbitration and must be litigated in court. You can read the full decision HERE.
Trevor Joseph Decloedt was a patient service representative at RadNet, a medical imaging company in Los Angeles County. When RadNet hired him, he signed an agreement requiring arbitration of employment disputes.
According to his complaint, a coworker named Susana Ceballos began targeting him in early 2022 because of his sexual orientation, telling him he "shouldn't be gay" because "it's sinning." He claimed her hostility escalated from derogatory comments to a threat to kill him and to pulling his hair, and that in November 2022 she yanked his hair so violently that he hid in the restroom to get away from her.
Decloedt sued for harassment, discrimination, wrongful termination, and related claims. RadNet moved to compel arbitration under his signed agreement.
Decloedt opposed the motion under the EFAA. Since its passage March 2022, the EFAA has exempted lawsuits with sexual harassment causes of action from arbitration. Whether the EFAA applied here turned...
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