Region 9-Cincinnati Secures Settlement Requiring Juvly Aesthetics to Rescind Unlawful Non-Compete and Training Repayment Agreement Provisions (TRAPs) and Pay Over $25,000 to Employees

On January 29, 2024, Region 9-Cincinnati Regional Director Eric A. Taylor approved a settlement agreement between Harper Holdings, LLC d/b/a/ Juvly Aesthetics (Employer) and three of its former employees that resolved pending unfair labor practice charges.

The consolidated complaint, issued in September 2023, alleged numerous violations, including maintaining unlawful confidentiality, non-disparagement, non-compete, no-solicitation, and training repayment provisions. The Employer’s policies had required employees leaving their employment within the first twelve months of employment to pay up to $75,000 in costs for training and prohibited employees from practicing aesthetic services within a twenty-mile radius for 24 months after termination of their employment. The complaint also alleged that the Employer told employees not to discuss their terms and conditions of employment, including individual employment contracts, bonuses, and evaluations; unlawfully enforced its non-disparagement and training repayment provisions; and unlawfully discharged and withheld benefits from employees.

The Employer agreed to rescind the unlawful policies, cease its demands for training repayments, to pay more than $25,000 in monetary relief to two employees affected by the Employer’s unlawful discharge and withholding of benefits, post a remedial Notice to Employees across all of its facilities in the United States, and post a copy of the Notice to its Slack messaging application.

Region 9-Cincinatti and Region 18-Minneapolis staff investigated the unfair labor practice charges and Region 9-Cincinatti staff litigated and secured the settlement.

“As General Counsel Abruzzo has explained, training repayment and non-compete provisions like these, that in practice cut off employees’ ability to leave their job, interfere with employees’ exercising their rights under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act,” said Region 9 Regional Director Eric A. Taylor. “I am proud of our staff for their efforts in protecting employee rights and achieving a settlement in accordance with the General Counsel’s directive of fully restorative relief.”

Established in 1935, the National Labor Relations Board is an independent federal agency that protects employees, employers, and unions from unfair labor practices and protects the right of private sector employees to join together, with or without a union, to improve wages, benefits and working conditions. The NLRB conducts hundreds of workplace elections and investigates thousands of unfair labor practice charges each year. Region 9 serves Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia from its Regional Office in Cincinnati.