Your Employer Could Ask You to Sign These Contracts or Clauses

In some jobs, your employer will never ask you to sign a contract or agreement. But in others, they will—and they may ask you to sign a lot of different documents. But what are they, and what’s the difference between them?

Non Compete Agreements

Non-compete agreements have long been barred in California, but they’re worth mentioning. A non-compete agreement says that you are not allowed to work for any competitor, in a given geographic area, for a given amount of time, after your current employment ends.

Although illegal in California, many employers will try to get around the law by disguising non-compete agreements using other language that effectively does the same thing—for example, by making employees pay financial penalties, if they leave employment, as a way of discouraging them from working for others.

Confidentiality Agreements

More commonly you may see confidentiality agreements. As the name suggests, confidentiality agreements require that you keep all data, information, communication or information that you may have learned through your work, about the company, completely private.

They may also require return of any information, data, or documents to the company, after your employment ends.

Be aware that in a dispute that ends up in court, this could open the door to an employer checking cell phone records and emails and texts, to verify that you have not taken or that you aren’t retaining any information.

While there is nothing inherently wrong with agreeing to confidentiality agreements at work, the big question is what information is confidential company information, and what is not. Often, employees bring their own experiences, customers, techniques, or data, to their employment. Later, when employment ends, litigation happens over whether or not information or data is that of the company, or whether it belongs to the employee, since the employee “brought” that data or information to the company.

Confidentiality agreements also may raise questions as to who really leaked or released information to others. You could easily get sued for telling a new employer something confidential about your old employer, even though the new employer could have learned of that confidential information in many other ways.

Non Solicitation Agreements

Non-solicitation agreements provide  that if you do leave your employment, you won’t solicit any of your old employer’s customers or employees to leave their employment. This is common in client-heavy industries, such as sales or commission-based jobs, where getting a long and dedicated customer list is vital to success.

Be aware that if you sign this agreement and then leave your employment, you won’t be able to bring any of the clients or customers you’ve generated at your employment with you to your new job.

Non-Disparagement Clauses

Although rare, non-disparagement agreements prohibit you from saying anything negative about your employer. This can open the door to you getting sued if you were to, for example, say anything to friends or family, or put anything on social media, critical of the company.

Contact the San Jose employment law attorneys at the Costanzo Law Firm if you have a legal issue at work, or with your employer.

Source:

oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bonta-issues-consumer-alert-reminding-california-workers-their