WA law restricts noncompete agreements. They keep popping up anyway

Company loyalty 

Westphal helped start a company in the late 1990s called Ti-Lite that manufactured golf clubs, bicycle frames and wheelchairs. Eventually, Permobil, a Swedish company, bought Ti-Lite. Over a 26-year career, he worked his way up and became the second-longest-tenured employee in Pasco, where the company employed some 230 people in 2019, according to the Tri-City Herald.

As the wheelchair manufacturing industry goes, Westphal is far from the only person to transition between competitors. The current CEO of Westphal’s new company, Larry Jackson, was previously the CEO of Permobil. And Westphal’s new boss at Sunrise also used to work for Permobil, as the company noted in its complaint. 

Find tools and resources in Cascade PBS’s Check Your Work guide to search workplace safety records and complaints for businesses in your community.

As one of the last out the door, Westphal thinks Permobil wants to make an example of him as a warning to current employees. Permobil declined to answer detailed questions about their enforcement of noncompetes, but a review of federal court records did not turn up other similar Permobil lawsuits. 

For its part, Sunrise has paid for Westphal’s defense thus far, but told him last month they were unable to support him any longer. Westphal is doing all right financially, but worries that costs could mount quickly as he faces medical issues and a 2025 trial that threatens his livelihood (he recently sold a boat and travel trailer in anticipation). If he loses the case, he may have to pay Permobil’s legal fees, which could top one million and “bankrupt me in a second.” 

About two months after Permobil filed the lawsuit, Westphal began experiencing mobility issues. A former golf pro and avid hiker, he was now struggling to walk. His doctors have yet to identify a diagnosis, but he said they think it could be neurological and stress-related. When his son got married in August, he was on the dance floor, but in a wheelchair, which he now uses whenever he leaves the house. 

“That’s probably the hardest thing for me is knowing how this has affected my family,” Westphal said, sitting next to photos of his 18-month-old granddaughter. His voice caught a bit, and he turned his head to look out the window before continuing. “Because I want to be the dad that I was, and the grandpa.” 

The National Labor Relations Board has separately issued a complaint against Permobil, but it is unlikely to be resolved before a Tennessee jury decides Westphal’s case.   

Even Westphal acknowledges some noncompetes may have value. But in his view, companies have abused them as a substitute for creating a desirable work environment. He noted that when he resigned, no one at the company asked if there were anything they could do to incentivize him to stay.

“If you create an environment where people want to work, they will stay,” he said. “I think the reason why companies … try to put the fear of God in their employees is because that’s the only way they can keep people.”