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Non-Competition agreement

 
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Non-Competition agreement - USA
-------------------------------
Hello everybody..

My employer wants me to sign a 'Non-Competition agreement' which has the clause as follows:

"During the term of Employee's employment with the COmpany and for a period of THREE years thereafter, Employee agrees that he will not, directly or indirectly, own, operate, manage, consult with, control, participate in the management or control of, be employed in ANY enterprise located on ONE HUNDRED mile radius of the company".

Isnt that a too restrictive constraint. This will restrict me not only with the COMPANIES in area(no matter my employer had/had not any relationship with that company) but also AREA wise -100 miles!!!

I am also not sure if such document even holds valid in Court of Law(US)..

Need expert advices here..SHOULD i or SHOULD i NOT sign the document?

Thanks.
 
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You need to consult a lawyer.

This type of contract may or may not be enforceable in your state.

And even if it is legal, it's arrogant of a company to insist that you cannot have ANY working relationship with ANY company within 100 miles. They want to make it painful for you to quit. If you quit, you'd have to move your family > 100 miles to find another job.

Unless I was desperate to put food on my table, I would not sign such a contract and would think twice about being associated with a company that would demand such a thing.

Ideally, companies should make employees want to stay by providing a safe, challenging, fulfilling work environment. Not by making it painful to leave. That makes for unhappy employees.
[ August 07, 2006: Message edited by: Scott Johnson ]
 
Myra Rose
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I want to know particulary about US. I am in currently in US and need to sign document for my recruiter in US.
 
Scott Johnson
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I want to know particulary about US.



When I say state, I mean state within the US. (California, Washington, etc.) Each state has their own labor laws. What may be enforceable in New York, may not be valid in California.

Those of us on this board are not lawyers. Before you enter into a contract such as this, you really should consult an expert.

Like I mentioned earlier, I would probably avoid a company that presented such a contract, but if the offer has other benefits and you are interested, contact a lawyer.

Wording on such contracts are always negotiable. You could strike or rewrite the offending text in the contract then return it to the company for approval. A good lawyer will help you with this.

Once both you and the company agree on the wording then you can sign on the dotted line.

I think most people don't realize that they can negotiate in these situations.
 
Myra Rose
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Oh! I am sorry. First time .. somehow entire message was not printed on forum.

Thanks for the replies and suggestion.
 
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".....ONE HUNDRED mile radius of the company".

funny....very smart company?
 
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Originally posted by Ritika Agarwal:
I am also not sure if such document even holds valid in Court of Law(US)..



I am not an attorney, but unless you are a senior executive there is a 99% chance that this is unenforceable in any state. If you are in California or a "right-to-work" state and you are a developer, then that chance goes up to around 100%.

What state are you in?

Cheers!

Luke
 
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Hi..

I dont know what your conditions are but As Scott rightly suggested...its always better to consult some good lawyer in this matter before signing such contract and making decision.

If company is asking to sign such a contract it speaks lot about the company.

Akash.
 
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My gut instinct, from having had a firm try to enforce one on me previously, is that such a blanket declaration won't be upheld by most courts. There's always going to be the exception (hence the 'most' instead of 'any'), but.

My current employer, for instance, has a much more reasonable non-compete - I'm not allowed to work for any firm that's in competition with my current employer, within a radius of fifty miles of any place of work of the current company, for a period of one year. So I could move from the current employer to another firm that's in an entirely different field-of-work (say, to a firm that does medical software or the like) without incurring the wrath of my current employer. That, probably, is enforceable since it does not prevent me from finding another job.

That's the test in the end as to whether or not to sign - if it's too restrictive, take it to a lawyer to decide if it's worth it...
 
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