But without a union on their side – after going through the entire hiring process, before getting a non-compete agreement and being asked to sign it – most people will find themselves between a rock and a hard place, Brooke says. “An industry consultant told me that a non-compete agreement would be in my interest, but I don`t agree – at least not now.” When it comes to imposing non-competition obligations, there are ten quick councils to ponder: in legal systems in which non-competitive alliances are not prohibited by law, it is generally accepted that “confidential business information that does not exceed the level of a trade secret may be protected by a duly closed confederation so as not to compete.” Medtronic, Inc. v. Sherland. In general, “the existence of a confidentiality agreement does not preclu herself from the existence of a competition exclusion association also protecting an employer`s legitimate commercial interest for its confidential information.” In Sherland, the court imposed a competition contract in which the defendant/former employee “obtained confidential information throughout his career at Medtronic and … “Would he have had considerable access and knowledge of the sales and marketing strategies that Medtronic used to train its salespeople, and this information would be useful to Medtronic`s competitors.” “In Louisiana, I feel like there are too many loopholes to stop a non-compete agreement,” Lawson said. “A person has the right to work.” Today, non-competitors are employed in low-wage sectors, such as house cleaning and food services – not with the people who keep the books, but with the people who do the cleaning and food — jobs where business secrets or proprietary knowledge are not threatened. More Common Law states answer this question in the positive than the negative, but the scorecard is hardly one-sided, with the law on the point in some legal systems, like Connecticut, remains murky until today. To avoid the problem altogether, most employers require new employees to perform the company`s standard contractual documentation as part of the boarding process (everyone agrees that a job offer is appropriate) or to match a medium-term non-compete agreement with a bonus, salary increase or other tangible benefits. It is a good idea to encourage the employer to read the trade secrets laws in his state to understand what he or she may or may not prevent the worker from doing. Otherwise, a court may argue that the entire contract is not valid, even with a separation clause.
Director Allan Freyer and senior attrney Carol Brooke are the authors of a new NC Justice Center Postmitdem entitled “Keeping Secrets? How non-compete bans on low-wage workers affect hiring and lower wages. In a victory for its 10 former employees, a Chapel Hill real estate cleaner agreed not to seek an agreement after the Justice Center came to their defense and argued in Orange Superior Court that non-competition bans in low-wage sectors are contrary to state policy by imposing inappropriate severity on people trying to get better or other jobs.