As if banks were losing enough money….here is a story about Bank of America (BoA) suing several ex-employees for violations of their non-compete contracts.
The suit was filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri. BoA accuses “certain of the individual defendants”, now employed by UMB Financial Corp., of sending direct-mail solicitation to their former BoA clients, in violation of their noncompete agreements.
I have not seen the language in the non-compete agreements and do not practice law in Missouri so I cannot speak to the laws of that state. However, a little history puts the former BoA employees’ actions in a better light.
Former BoA wealth management employees in the Kansas City, MO area have been hired by competing firms since the start of 2009, when BoA announced a plan to cut 30,000 to 35,000 jobs throughout the company in the next three years. The cuts stemmed from a combination of duplication of services after BoA bought Merrill Lynch last fall for $50 billion and the recession, which caused huge reductions in assets under management for wealth management firms throughout the country.
My Take: I hope the law in Missouri allows the judge who will decide this case to focus on the employees’ right to earn a living and support their families….especially when BoA most likely would have terminated these employees anyway.