FTC Approves Final Order Requiring Anchor Glass Container Corp. to Drop Noncompete Restrictions That It Imposed on Workers
I’m seeding this to see if anyone else here has fallen victim to this wholly unfair practice, masquerading itself as a necessary practice to protect corporate interests. This country just becomes a more and more shitty place to reside thanks to the lawyers and sleazy human resource departments that push this garbage into the public square.
I have a friend who got a job offer with a company that promised better working conditions that the company they were employed by. So they accepted an employment agreement, put in their notice at their current company, and showed up at the new job as planned. Immediately they were handed a legal document that required their signature before they could move forward. The company coerced the now unemployed person into signing an agreement that they may not work for a competing company within 50 miles of any branch for a period of two full years after termination, regardless if they quit, were laid off, or were fired.
They reluctantly signed because it was either that or be unemployed, thinking that this company appeared too decent to ever exercise such callous and punitive measures on an ex-employee. This was the first time in their lengthy career across multiple employers that they had ever even seen such an agreement, particularly in the industry they were in. After all, these are the types of legal maneuvers constraining high earning, high level managers who could conceivably cause clients to follow them elsewhere, not the general staff positions who rarely ever even communicate with clients.
As the years wore on, they found that they had been sold a lemon and the job was nothing close to what was promised. Projects were grossly mismanaged and staff was not valued for their opinions on how to correct the pathetic course that they were always on. One day they finally hit their breaking point, put in their notice, and embarked on a new job search. That was months ago, and they have had numerous interviews, some of which going so well that not receiving an offer was inconceivable. Not only were they ghosted on every position, but most of the time they didn’t even receive any form of communication turning them down. No phone call, no email, not even a response to follow up requests for feedback. With decades of successful experience in their field, this situation was completely foreign. It’s clear that the former employer is fielding reference calls with threats to sue this person or anyone who hires this person now that they have been informed of the agreement. It’s a disgusting, punitive action by a weasel company that never deserved quality employees to begin with.
I was so shocked by this revelation that I started researching the legality of noncompete agreements. The Federal Trade Commission has proposed to outlaw these agreements, as they are wholly anticompetitive and rob industries of the skilled workers that are in demand. It is sad that the inhumanity angle isn’t even considered, just the impacts on industry, hence the charge being taken up by the FTC. Corporations over citizens, as usual. The seeded FTC Order addresses a particular case, but on a federal level all the commission can do is make a proposal to congress and wait for them to act. The commission has done just that, and is currently in total agreement that the practice needs to end. However, a recently departed member (Christine Wilson) did issue a rambling dissenting opinion on the matter. Wilson is Ted Cruz sycophant and a Trump appointee who resigned from the FTC over disagreements with other committee members. Basically, it sounds like she snatched up her toys and left the sandbox - shocking behavior from a Trump appointee, huh? Anyways, does anyone else have any history with this unethical and immoral practice?
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Following a public comment period, the Federal Trade Commission finalized a consent order settling charges that Anchor Glass Container Corp. illegally imposed noncompete restrictions on more than 300 workers across a variety of positions.
The consent order bans Anchor Glass from entering into, maintaining, enforcing or attempting to enforce, or threatening to enforce noncompete restrictions on relevant workers. Among other things, the company also is banned from telling a relevant employee or other employers that the employee is subject to a noncompete.
The Commission vote to approve the final order was 3-0.
The Federal Trade Commission works to promote competition , and protect and educate consumers. You can learn more about how competition benefits consumers or file an antitrust complaint . For the latest news and resources, follow the FTC on social media , subscribe to press releases and read our blog .
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Noncompete agreements need to be outlawed, period.
sorry to hear that happened to your friend. these days, unless they're backed up with a compensation package at the back end, non-competes are pretty much unenforceable. NDA's are also pretty much useless now too. it's unfortunate that innocent novices of corporate shenanigans can be taken advantage of by unscrupulous scum.
I worked for an employer that tried to strong arm the sales force by requiring everyone to sign a document that gave ownership of their cell phone numbers to the company. a competitor had come to town and my employer at that time was afraid of losing business if any of the sales people decided to leave. I was the holdout and refused to sign.
they finally sent the HR person to me to let me know if I didn't sign that I would be terminated. I reminded her that I had purchased the cell phone and had paid every bill. therefore the number belonged to me and the company would need to reimburse me for those payments, otherwise I would be filing a class action lawsuit to recover those costs for the entire sales force. I urged her to call the US Dept. of Labor to check on the legality first and told her use my name and ask to speak to ______. (same last name as mine) he was a political appointee of the ______ administration and ran the regional office. he was also my cousin that I grew up with. the next thing I heard was that the company had changed their policy and everyone still owned their phone numbers. the owners weren't very happy with me, but I wrote over 230 contracts per year, and greed always soothes the corporate beasts.
there were a few other instances years earlier, but I was a rookie at playing the game and those involved threats of extreme violence. still very effective, but there weren't as many cameras or recording devices back then.
I love an underdog story. My advice to this person was to aggressively push back, but the whole thing is that this an existing signed agreement with a stipulation for who pays the legal fees in a dispute. There’s very little legal standing to support a positive outcome, particularly while unemployed. Outlaw this practice.
my advice to her would be to spoof her phone number to that of a competitor, record the call, and inquire about her job reference as an HR person from the spoofed company. I recall that in my state when I was acting as HR for an installation contractor, we were only allowed to confirm whether or not a person had worked there or not, for fear of lawsuits.
although I did have an installer that I terminated because the homeowner had found a pistol that he had apparently dropped in her home during the installation. I later got a call from a friend that worked for a different contractor that called me when that same installer had applied for a job. since the other contractor had worked for me prior to starting his own company and we were friends, I clued him in. the installer called me back a few days after being rejected by my friend and threatened to harm me if he ever found out that it was me that had ratted him out.
he was on my top 5 list of suspects when I had to patch 3 bullet holes in the front of my house before I sold it. my people skills as a manager for blue collar workers eventually improved.
I have not had it happen to me but I know a couple of managers that were subject to a NCC and told the company to stuff it. The company never followed up on the threats.
Interesting, but I would think that telling a former employer to stuff it would only give them more reasons to screw you when anyone calls them for a reference. The agreement itself would have to be litigated to be acted on. It’s money in the bank for the employer. Court could cost thousands with no guarantee of making it nonenforceable, plus you could end up paying their legal fees. These things are drawn up by legal sharks, which is why need to be outlawed.
They were both people with skills that were and still are in very high demand and well-known throughout our industry and if I remember correctly they both hired high-powered lawyers.
I do agree that the NCC are BS and should be outlawed.
Non compete agreements are already outlawed ..... if you don’t sign one that is.