Plaintiffs lawyers on Tuesday urged California lawmakers to bar arbitration and secret settlements in the workplace, arguing that closed-door dispositions to sexual misconduct complaints are thwarting the “#MeToo” movement.

The attorneys, testifying before a Senate committee reviewing harassment laws in the wake of recent Capitol scandals, said companies have adopted an array of policies to keep bad behavior under wraps even as the nation undergoes a reckoning over how women are treated at work.