Dear Mr. Conway:
I had spoken with a representative at Annette Cleveland’s office and they have urged me to send you an e-mail regarding the story in the Seattle Times about a maintenance worker from Servicemaster being put on a non-compete agreement.
As you can see, the reason that Benny Almedia was put on a non-compete agreement is because lawyers claim that he is getting training and gaining skills and that is the reason that he should be put on a non-compete agreement. These skills in this case are the ability to clean floors.
I’m sure you can see through this and know that this is nothing more than an attempt by non-compete lawyers to game the system and go out of their way to put all employees on non-compete agreements for their financial gains since Mr. Almedia poses no threat to the company and would have no impact if he left the company and took that job for $21.00.
Unfortunately, non-compete agreements are common throughout the country today. Employees at Subway, Jimmy John’s, Potbelly, and other fast food restaurants have their employees on non-compete agreements. In addition, there are dog groomers, cat groomers, maids, and hairdressers on non-compete agreements as well.
The most disturbing piece of news is that a 16 year old teenage girl was also asked to sign a non-compete agreement in order to work in a summer camp. That should tell you there there could be teenagers in your area who could have signed non-compete agreements as well without their parents consent. I’m sure that you would not want to read a story in the Seattle Times on this if that were to be the case.
I hope that as a result of this, you will consider taking action which includes regulating non-compete agreements. It’s obvious that non-compete lawyers and their clients have no regard to who signs a non-compete agreement and they don’t care if it causes embarrassment to your state.
If you’re on Twitter, you would see that there are people who are constantly commenting on this story. Taking no action on this would mean that non-compete lawyers in your area will continue to game the system and take advantage of people like me who want to earn a living without a non-compete agreement that would be held over our head - an agreement that states that employees can be fired at any time for any reason and can’t work in the industry for 2-5 years. These are the types of agreements that create a career of indentured servitude.
States like New Jersey and Maryland tried to pass legislation that stated that if an employee is fired and forced to collect unemployment benefits, then their non-compete would be invalid. You can refer to bill A3970 in New Jersey for details on this bill.
You can also look at legislation in Massachusetts regarding limiting non-compete agreements for six months and outlawing non-compete agreements for lower level position such as fast food companies and maintenance workers.
Below are the links to the articles. I hope you will consider acting on this information. By doing that, if you’re able to regulate non-compete agreements in your state, then other states could follow your example.
I wish you luck in this. Thank you for reading this letter.
Ron Hummer
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