By Jody Godoy
(Reuters) -The U.S. Federal Trade Commission barred the largest pet cremation business in the U.S. from enforcing its noncompete agreements with 1,800 workers on Thursday, saying they unfairly diminish workers' leverage with their employer.
The move shows how FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson is using enforcement actions against targeted instances of practices the agency says can harm workers and consumers, where his predecessor Lina Khan had pursued more far-reaching regulatory bans.
"Rest assured:
today's action will not be the last," said Kelse Moen, who co-leads the labor task force that Ferguson launched in February.
The effort illustrates one side of the Trump administration's approach to U.S. workers, where Ferguson has said the FTC aims to crack down on deceptive practices by employers to deliver on President Donald Trump's promise to address the economic concerns of the working class. On the other hand, labor groups have criticized the administration and unions have sued it for stripping hundreds of thousands of federal workers' collective bargaining rights and reversing some pro-worker policies put in place under former President Joe Biden.
The FTC is expected to disclose on Monday whether it will continue to defend a rule it passed last year that would ban such agreements nationwide. A judge in Texas struck down the rule last year after the U.S. Chamber of Commerce sued the agency.
Ferguson, a Republican, dissented from the agency's Democratic majority rule when it was passed, saying it went beyond the FTC's authority and relied on weak evidence regarding the benefits and drawbacks of a blanket ban.
On Thursday, the FTC said pet cremation company Gateway Services has agreed to cease enforcing its noncompete agreements, which bar employees at its 100 locations from working elsewhere in the industry for a year after leaving the company.
(Reporting by Jody Godoy and Daniel Wiessner in New YorkEditing by Chris Sanders and Matthew Lewis)
