A worker's ability to freely change jobs is critical to the individual's freedom and personal and economic liberty. Workers’ ability to change jobs at their own discretion creates a thriving and innovative US economy but employers and businesses have fought against this and sought to take away this freedom by demanding non-compete agreements as a condition of employment. Workers suffer when they have to stay in low paying jobs or jobs without any realistic hope of promotions or advancement. Help is on the way for New Jersey workers to prohibit the employer’s forcing of non-compete agreements. New Jersey Senate Bill S4386 will greatly help New Jersey employees if it passes and gets signed into law.
New Jersey Senate Bill 4386
New Jersey Senate Bill 4386 was introduced earlier this year in the NJ Senate, and referred to Senate Labor Committee. This bill prohibits non-compete clauses and no-poach agreements in New Jersey, aiming to protect workers' economic mobility and prevent employers from restricting employees' ability to seek new employment after leaving their job. The legislation would mandate that non-compete clauses and agreements that restrain an employee from working in their profession after employment void and unenforceable, including such agreements that are already in place.
DON’T SIT ON YOUR RIGHTS. If you are being subjected to unlawful workplace discrimination, or your employer is violating your rights, or believe you are being pushed out of your job, contact Hope A. Lang, Attorney at Law today for a free consultation. I accept cases from all over the state and have locations in northern, central and southern NJ to meet with clients. Call today for a free consultation.
THIS BILL IF PASSED INTO LAW WILL AFFECT BOTH CURRENT AND PAST EMPLOYEES, AND EMPLOYERS WILL HAVE A LEGAL DUTY TO NOTIFY EMPLOYEES
AS TO CURRENT EMPLOYEES
Every employer will be required to notify, not more than 30 days after the effective date of the bill, every current employee that any non-compete clause or other agreement which restrains an employee from engaging in a lawful profession, trade, or business of any kind after the conclusion of employment, or which in any way violates the provisions of the bill, including any clause or agreement which was entered into or in effect on or before the effective date of the bill, is against public policy, void and unenforceable against the employee;
AS TO PAST EMPLOYEES
Every employer will be required to notify every past employee with whom the employer has contact, and with whom the employer had entered into a non-compete clause, that the non-compete clause is void and unenforceable, within 30 days after the bill's effective date, and immediately whenever the employee requests information about the clause, or is subject to an action based on or related to the clause.
Also prohibited will be imposing upon a departing worker any employment-related cost related to the worker's leaving the current employment. The bill defines "employment-related cost" as a necessary expenditure or loss incurred by an employee in direct consequence of the discharge of their duties at work or of their obedience to a direction of their employer. "Employment-related cost" includes but is not limited to, equipment or a training, residency, orientation, or competency validation required either by an employer or to practice in a specific employee classification.
Employees are not always motived to leave a current position because they have been offered or are seeking another position for higher income. Employees sometimes seek to leave a job because of discrimination against them. See New Jersey Race Discrimination Lawyer. Professional women who are long-term employees may finally get fed up with being passed over in promotions in favor of promoting a less qualified male candidate. See NJ Sex Discrimination Attorney, I’m a Female Executive Unfairly Evaluated.
Employees may see the handwriting on the wall: that the job they thought would propel them forward economically, actually is a dead-end position. Bergen County, New Jersey Sex Discrimination Lawyer. Workers of all ethnic groups, races, color, gender, ages, etc., who seek to better themselves, should not be penalized for going oread in their life because they signed a non-compete agreement. See Employment/Civil Rights Law.
The cost of training required by an employer to perform a job should be imposed on employers, as it is employers who ultimately stand to financially benefit from a well-trained workforce.
A government study and independent research groups determined that worker non-compete agreements, which are contracts which prevent a worker from working for another employer within the same industry, are hurting the US economy by keeping wages low, suppressing the implementation of new ideas and innovation which would invigorate the economy, and preventing new business formations. See NJ Employment Attorney, Workers Sign Away Their Rights in Growing Trend.
The drafters of New Jersey Senate Bill 4386 recognized that non-compete clauses have the effect of binding workers in low-wage jobs or jobs with poor working conditions, or of indebting workers to their former employers upon separation for the cost of training. Non-compete clauses have the effect of reducing those workers' professional mobility, creating obstacles toward financial security and chilling the NJ State economy. They found that it is in the interest of individual workers and of the State to protect workers from non-compete clauses, employment-based debts, no-poach agreements, and other restraints on worker mobility, and to assist in aligning the costs of operating a business with its financial benefits by preventing employers, after the conclusion of employment, from shifting expenses of any training they require for workers unto the workers.
An employee who is subject to a non-compete clause or a no-poach agreement, or who otherwise suffers harm because of a violation of the provisions of this act, or a representative of the employee, may bring a civil action on behalf of the employee, other persons similarly situated, or both, in a court of competent jurisdiction, which shall, upon a finding that a violation has been committed by an employer, order all appropriate relief, including: enjoining the conduct of any person or employer; ordering payment of liquidated damages; and awarding lost compensation, actual damages, punitive damages of not more than $5,000 per employee, reasonable attorneys' fees and costs, and injunctive relief.
Don’t Sit on Your Rights
I am an aggressive and compassionate employment law attorney who is experienced and successful in representing professionals and executives, IT managers and others and in obtaining monetary compensation for their being subjected to illegal acts of the employer. I have successfully represented employees who were either Illegally terminated or pressured into resigning.
If you are being subjected to such unlawful workplace discrimination or believe you are being pushed out of your job, contact Hope A. Lang, Attorney at Law today for a free consultation. I accept employment cases from all over New Jersey and have locations in Southern, Central and Northern NJ to meet with clients.
Hope A. Lang, Attorney at Law represents workers throughout the entire state, including Hackensack, Jersey City, Newark, Irvington, Orange, East Orange, Trenton, Paterson, Montclair, Elizabeth, North Brunswick, Cherry Hill, Vineland, Union, Plainfield, Hamilton Township, Lakewood, Edison, Parsippany-Troy Hills, Franklin, Lakewood, and every NJ County, including Bergen, Hudson, Middlesex, Essex, Monmouth, Somerset, Ocean, Union, Camden, Passaic, Morris, Gloucester, Atlantic, Burlington, Camden Counties.