New York’s governor vetoed a bill days before Christmas that would have banned noncompete agreements, which restrict workers’ ability to leave their job for a role with a rival business.
Gov. Kathy Hochul, who said she tried to work with the Legislature on a “reasonable compromise” this year, called the bill “a one-size-fits-all-approach” for New York companies legitimately trying to retain top talent.
“I continue to recognize the urgent need to restrict non-compete agreements for middle-class and low-wage workers, and am open to future legislation that achieves the right balance,” she wrote in a veto letter released Saturday.
The veto is a blow to labor groups, who have long argued that the agreements hurt workers and stifle economic growth. The Federal Trade Commission had also sent a letter to Hochul in November, urging her to sign the bill and saying that the agreements can harm innovation and prevent new businesses from forming in the state.
For example, the sandwich chain Jimmy John’s previously came under scrutiny for forcing its low-wage workers to sign noncompete agreements that prevented them from working for a nearby business for two years after they left.
Jesus, they basically want slavery. They want workers to be completely dependent on them to the point that you legally can’t go work at a different sandwich shop. I’ve only eaten there once and it was mediocre, but I’ll never step foot in there again. What the fuck.
Fun fact, there are franchise owners for all the big names that do this. McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, etc. It’s not usually a corporate decision.
Related, there are chains that won’t hire from each other. They maintain a gray list of previous employees and you can only get hired back at your original location.
McDonald’s et al corporate level don’t care if franchisees do this? I mean, I can see them not caring…but I could also see them trying to score social points by pretending to care and claiming they disallow it.
They don’t even pretend.
Ah yes, workers might take those precious trade secrets of (checks notes) how to make a sandwich.
Not slavery, serfdom.
Which is technically better then slavery for the serfs, but conveniently is also significantly cheaper for the landed gentry/capital class as they don’t have to feed or house their serfs.
I thought it was a federal law, but it might just be in my state, but I thought for a non-compete to be valid, the employee has to be compensated for it?
I don’t know of any circumstance where you would be specifically compensated for a non-compete, but in my state they aren’t valid unless you make a certain base compensation, which is currently about $125k/year.
Why do you think political bribery is so rampant and expected in the US?
Our politicians are almost exclusively paid middle managers for the owners. DC works for Manhattan and Silicon Valley.
Cute how she’s being likely being paid under the table by some lobbyists that benefits from said non-compete agreements. And even if not under the table, it’s likely under the form of campain contributions, etc. Politics and capitalism mixed together brings the worst in both.
Nobody in their right mind would elect to veto something giving more rights to the working class without having some personal interests on the line.
You have a source for that?
Hence the reason why I chose the likely being paid qualifier.
“I’m just asking questions!”
If you don’t understand the power that words hold then maybe don’t use them with such conviction.
those words described our situation tho. is there some reason people shouldn’t do that? i mean beyond “it’s not true 100% of the time.”
deleted by creator
deleted by creator
Do you support the idea of a non-compete agreement?
deleted by creator
There’s a lot of useless truism verbiage here. Luckily it appears I’m more flexible than you, and will in fact claim that I think Kathy Hochul is working with the enemy of the people, corporations.
Prove it? Again, flexibility, allows me to draw conclusions based on previous actions. The facts are:
- corporations don’t like competition.
- Kathy likes playing both sides based on legislation that’s been seemingly good for the little guy, but generally seems to have a critical loophole, see the hobbled right to repair law for a perfect example.
- Kathy has a budget to balance, and friends in many circles that are both left and right in these large corporations.
It is emphatically not a difficult conclusion to draw that she’s working with corporations on some things which are decidedly bad for New York’s general populace, and greatly advantage corporations. I personally give zero fucks about your fear of claiming she’s doing stuff without proof, as there is largely an asymmetry of information between the public and the inner machinations of the political class. We must suppose based on missing information, and I cannot see any reason for keeping such an archaic idea as a noncompetitive agreement.
Stop being naive, you’re embarrassing yourself in front of everyone. The only question at this point is whether you’re doing it on purpose or not.
/applaud
Why would you think they do from that comment chain? If the OP of the chain wants to say she’s getting paid off, they should have proof. As it is, the word likely is doing a hell of a lot of heavy lifting there while at the same time influencing people’s ideas on how our politicians vote. That has nothing to do whatsoever with your question which only serves to tell people if you want actual proof of bribery, then you must agree with the not having the law that would have helped people.
It’s simple to compare how negative legislation like this is for labor versus how much it helps corporations looking to scare employees trying to escape. Based on how positive for labor such a simple bill would have been, while seemingly negative for corporation’s bottom lines, the resulting suggestion of who she is and how her philosophy works as governor is trivial.
Your weak personal convictions preclude your ability to conclude there is a fire when we collectively smell smoke, I am luckily unaffected.
deleted by creator
Why would you think they do from that comment chain? If the OP of the chain wants to say she’s getting paid off, they should have proof. As it is, the word likely is doing a hell of a lot of heavy lifting there while at the same time influencing people’s ideas on how our politicians vote. That has nothing to do whatsoever with your question which only serves to tell people if you want actual proof of bribery, then you must agree with not having the law that would have helped people.
Sorry, your comment has nothing to do with my question.
Please improve your cogency. Thank you and goodbye.
Try harder and you might write a whole sentence!
Here is a source for you.
We are a oligarchy
I understand what lobbying is, but thank you for the info. This doesn’t relate specifically to this person, though. OP says they are likely taking money and i asked for a reason to suspect this person in particular unless the argument is just “they all do it” in which case it wouldn’t be “likely”.
Look up likely in the dictionary.
deleted by creator
deez
Deez?
deez nuts
got eem
You picked the wrong side, Governor.
companies legitimately trying to retain top talent
Basically blacklisting them from their field for a year after leaving your company is not how you retain talent. Pay them better. Give them better health coverage or other benefits. Only being able to retain talent by basically threatening them if they leave is not a good look.
Thank god for states with half a brain. Non-competes are illegal in my state and not enforceable.
In my country non-compete laws are extremely rational: if you want to enforce such a contract, pay the person what he could make at a competitor during the entire duration you want to prevent him from going to the competition.
It’s not up to the State to pay unemployment for people because you don’t want talent to go somewhere else. Pay up or STFU.
Idiot employers will still put silly non-compete clauses into their contracts to scare people but I just chuckle as they are unenforceable unless they want to pay me to stay “on the beach”.
Related. My previous employer had a b2b non-compete. The clients couldn’t hire me. Yes it did end up costing me a job and a lawyer told me it would be very dicey challenging it the way it was written. On the plus side the client went bankrupt a few months back so that would have sucked.
The big question is, would they have gone bankrupt if they had been allowed to hire you?
The two events are independent. The entire sector burned down.
Ahh I see.
Any chance of overturning the veto?
legitimately trying to retain top talent
“Trying to figure out how to pay their talent less”
If you want to retain top talent, pay them, give them better working conditions, offer them fulfilment. Don’t make it illegal for them to work elsewhere.
We need free markets and deregulation… until it inconvenieniences non-productive shareholders in the slightest or those dirty workers start getting a little uppity.
In California, non-compete agreements are banned unless the company compensates the person subject for the agreement. If the company can impose one for free, why not subject everyone to them?
From this photo, this woman looks like the baddie from Men In Black 2.
Hope they have votes to overrule her veto.
Asshole.
The funny thing is then the rich companies spends millions on lawyers to say that poached employee’s stuff was common knowledge and thereby not an NDA issue or trade secret.
You turn around and say I’m leaving but will say the same stuff that person said to the next employer and they’ll sue with the same lawyers.
“It’s ok if I do it but not if they do it”
Aren’t non competes generally very difficult to enforce? The people I’ve known that have gotten in trouble with non compete agreements are those in management positions that engaged in very active poaching of their old teams within a specified time frame.
Also, given the nature of remote work and hiring, I kind of have a mixed feeling. What does this kind of state regulation in a VHO/WFH environment do to NY workers in a job market with flexible location? These regulations really should be at the federal level.
If I could just leave my current company and go to a different company that did the same thing it would be good for me if I wanted to move or make more money. The other company would probably not really make that much money.
