this post was submitted on 24 Dec 2023
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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.

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[–] FuglyDuck 160 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Why do these companies never get it? You want to retain talent… you gotta pay to retain that talent.

More accurately, you want your experienced and proprietary-knowledge-laden people to not take that stuff elsewhere…. Gotta pay them what they’re worth.

Can’t keep lowballing the pay raises, and expect people to not shop around,

[–] [email protected] 55 points 1 year ago

Sure they can, so long as they can ensure they have a high-placed government stooge or two to ensure they can legally blacklist an employee from the industry if they leave.

[–] NateNate60 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

He who lives by the free market shall die by the free market

[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 year ago (1 children)

He who lives by the free market will manipulate the free market to his advantage at the first opportunity to not have to actually live by the free market.

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[–] [email protected] 129 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

[–] FuglyDuck 50 points 1 year ago (1 children)

knew a guy who crossed out those bits in the agreement. they HR peeps never noticed until he found a new place to work. (he now works for our company.) It amazes me; how many people fail to realize every contract is unique.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

A modification like that is only valid if both parties add their initials next to it to confirm they've seen it...

[–] FuglyDuck 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

Nope. You just sign a contract without reading it, that’s on you.

Or did you think them being pushy while you actually read it wasn’t because they never ever try to sneak something in?

To clarify, you can’t add something way out of the pale, like “upon termination of this contract all assets of [whatever corpo] belong to FuglyDuck”… but you can definitely cross out terms you don’t ageee with (for example, the arbitration clause.)

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[–] [email protected] 122 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (24 children)

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.

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[–] raynethackery 91 points 1 year ago

You picked the wrong side, Governor.

[–] iforgotmyinstance 66 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Why can't they retain top talent by paying them more?

[–] Stovetop 21 points 1 year ago

But how would that benefit the shareholders? You're not thinking like a true capitalist!

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[–] Ghostalmedia 64 points 1 year ago (12 children)

And this is one of the reasons top tech talent stays in Silicon Valley / San Francisco, and why that area innovates so quickly.

If your company sucks, I’ll work for your competitor.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 1 year ago

It's also why wages are so high. You wanna keep your talent? You gotta pay more than the company next door, or have better perks to make up for the wage disparity.

I got poached from AWS because my current team has a full AWS stack, and they wanted someone who knew it inside and out. They offered me a full remote position (whole company is full remote) with a higher salary, but slightly less TC. My new job is also way less stressful and with way more freedom.

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[–] FluffyPotato 48 points 1 year ago (4 children)

How are contracts like this enforceable in the US? Like here you could have a clause like that but the moment you try to sue someone for working at a competitor the judge would just laugh at you and throw your ass out of court. You can't have just anything in a contract, just like if a contract breaks employment laws then it's not valid.

[–] ook_the_librarian 38 points 1 year ago

Most contracts have a severability clause saying if any clause is unenforceable then that clause shall be severed, but the rest stands. This lets companies take some big swings with what they put in there.

It takes time and money and stress for a worker to challenge any terms regardless of their merit. So an invalid contract still keeps you down, just not as strongly as the invalid contract itself claims to be.

[–] ZeroTemp 13 points 1 year ago (3 children)

They are rarely enforced and when they are it is usually due to some sort of significant financial loss the company suffered. Normally a company is not going to waste time and money taking a cook or cashier to court over quitting a job at McDonald's then going to work Burger King. But a senior software engineer working at Google going to work for Apple could have some real financial implications, so they'd be more likely to pursue legal action against that person. Still kinda bullshit in my mind but I get it.

[–] psmgx 23 points 1 year ago

Yeah but California has already banned non-competes, has for years, and Google and Apple seem to be doing just fine with the financial implications.

Also non-competes are different from NDAs.

[–] Maggoty 9 points 1 year ago

There's still protections. Apple just got rocked for stealing the entire dev team from somewhere and just wholesale copying the code. Which is on Apple, not the worker. They could absolutely have taken them for an adjacent project (it was sensors in smart watches) using the same sensors. Or paid a licensing agreement for what was there with a right to improve it.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

They don't have to actually enforce it, they just have to scare you with it. Or better yet, convince you they could enforce it

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 1 year ago

legitimately trying to retain top talent

"Trying to figure out how to pay their talent less"

[–] QuarterSwede 31 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thank god for states with half a brain. Non-competes are illegal in my state and not enforceable.

[–] ours 13 points 1 year ago

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".

[–] afraid_of_zombies 30 points 1 year ago (3 children)

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.

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[–] stress_headache 30 points 1 year ago

Any chance of overturning the veto?

[–] WaxedWookie 25 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago

From this photo, this woman looks like the baddie from Men In Black 2.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago
[–] Desistance 17 points 1 year ago

Hope they have votes to overrule her veto.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago

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"

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