eBay Investigated For Potential Employee Rights Violations, 401K Underperformance
Arizona-based law firm Don Bivens PLLC is investigating eBay for potential employee rights violations related to underperformance of assets tied to employee 401(K) benefits as company's labor troubles continue.
The firm specializes in Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) litigation, with a focus on cases involving breaches of fiduciary duty, challenging the mismanagement of 401(k) plans, exposing conflicts of interest, and tackling complex issues like excessive fees and imprudent investments.
While Bivens doesn't provide much in the way of details of their investigation at this stage, they've set up an intake form for prospective plaintiffs who have worked for eBay to contact the firm.
The form asks respondents if they were employed at eBay, participated in the company’s 401(k) plan between 2019 and 2024, and have access to the employee portal or any physical documents related to their 401(k) - indicating the issues they are investigating are relatively recent and possibly ongoing.
They also ask if they can contact the prospective plaintiff regarding other potential legal violations as part of the investigation, so retirement benefits may be just the tip of the iceberg.
Sources familiar with the matter say there has been an increase in chatter on anonymous job review site Blind about benefits problems at eBay, with some employees raising concerns regarding changes made to 401(k) plan investments they believe could pose conflicts of interest for the company's board of directors.
On a possibly related note, I've noticed several recent open job ads indicate eBay is increasingly integrating Workday Core Human Capital Management (HCM) software into all aspects of HR, payroll, benefits, and "talent management" at the company - coincidentally, Workday CFO Zane Rowe joined eBay's Board of Directors earlier this year.
Since those changes, some employees say they are seeing significant underperformance of their 401(k) investments compared to the previous offering and others have been discussing "payroll shenanigans" and problems with their employee stock purchase plans.
Labor relations have been a particularly thorny issue for eBay since acquiring collectible trading card marketplace TCGPlayer in 2022, leading to the sudden departure of the company's Chief Accounting Officer when due diligence concerns about the deal were raised and the establishment of the first unionized workforce in eBay history.
Liz Morton
TCGUnion-CWA has continued their now year plus long fight to get eBay to bargain in good faith and agree to a contract, filing multiple complaints with the National Labor Relations Board along the way.
The company has recently undertaken an "investor recommended" indepedendant Values Assessment as well, with the goal of determining if eBay is living up to the principals of their published Human Rights Policy - which includes, among other things, respecting the rights of workers to organize.
Liz Morton
Results of that Values Assessment have not been made public at this time.
eBay also undertook a mass layoff at the beginning of this year that cut ~1,000 roles and as other big tech companies have done the same, they've increasingly been subjected to scrutiny of hiring practices, particularly around H-1B visas - could eBay find themselves under the immigration microscope soon too?
Bernadette Walker
The Department of Justice is already paying close attention to the company as part of a deferred prosecution agreement regarding multiple federal felonies committed by eBay security employees who targeted journalists Ina and David Steiners of EcommerceBytes in 2019 with a shocking campaign of harassment and stalking aimed at influencing their coverage and outing an anonymous source.
Liz Morton
And at a time when eBay is clearly feeling both external heat from regulatory and legal bodies as well as low internal morale, they've promoted Aaron Johnson to be the new Chief Ethics Officer - despite the fact that in his previous role at the company he was the main recipient of the infamous "Whatever. It. Takes" email from ex-Chief Communications Officer Steve Wymer, revealed in the cyberstalking case.
Given the criminal events that occurred following this email, it would appear that neither Johnson nor then Chief Legal Officer Marie Oh Huber took action in their respective positions to make sure eBay's head of security, Jim Baugh, handled executive "frustration" within established legal bounds or reported this troubling and highly inappropriate communication from Wymer through any of the internal compliance or ethics channels which existed at that time - or, if they did, those channels clearly failed.
How are current employees supposed to feel knowing this is the person who may ultimately handle any internal reports or complaints they may have?
The revelation of this investigation and ongoing employee tension brewing on multiple fronts sheds some interesting light on the strange press appearances VP Global Customer Experience Derek Allgood has recently engaged in, with discussions about eBay's "people-centric" customer experience centering more around how they treat their frontline support employees than their actual buyer and seller customers.
Liz Morton
eBay has not responded to requests for comment on the investigation as of time of publishing, but stay tuned for updates in this developing story.
And if you're a current or ex-eBay employee, Don Bivens PLLC wants to hear from you - and so do I!
Requests for confidentiality will absolutely be respected, find me on X/Twitter @ValueAddedRS , LinkedIn, email or Signal @ValueAddedResource.29
