Kudo’s to Amazon (but they had to be shamed into it). Business Insider reports that Amazon, which employs over 88,000 workers world-wide, plans to remove “non-compete” clauses from its employment contracts for US workers paid by the hour. By signing the non-compete agreement, workers pledged not to:
…engage in or support the development, manufacture, marketing, or sale of any product or service that competes or is intended to compete with any product or service sold, offered, or otherwise provided by Amazon (or intended to be sold, offered, or otherwise provided by Amazon in the future) that employee worked on or supported, or about which employee obtained or received confidential information.
Pretty outrageous language if you ask me. How can an hourly worker, many hired seasonally during the holidays to pack boxes, injure Amazon’s reasonable business? The answer is simple. They cannot and the language in the existing agreement merely prevents the ex-employee from feeding his or her family.
My Take: Every state in America should outlaw non-compete contracts!