Amendment 1 in Georgia (noncompete stuff)

[beej67]

Anyone seen this? (anyone care?)

link to one of several stories:

http://www.11alive.com/news/national/story.aspx?storyid=155312&catid=165

There's a ballot initiative this election in Georgia that's phrased like this:

Amendment One "Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended so as to make Georgia more economically competitive by authorizing legislation to uphold reasonable competitive agreements? () YES () NO


But what it apparently does, is open up Georgia for 2 year noncompete agreements that can be demanded from employees, subcontractors, or 1099s. So an employer could conceivably force you to sign one, then fire you, then prevent you from going to work for a competitor for a 2 year span. That's the rumor anyway.

The Georgia Chamber of Commerce (of course) claims that allowing those sorts of things in Georgia will make Georgia more competitive with adjacent states.

Is that true? Are these sorts of things common in other areas of the country? I've lurked in some eng-tips threads on noncompete agreements before, but I've never heard of applying them to 1099 subcontractors. I'm also somewhat curious how enforceable they are.



Hydrology, Drainage Analysis, Flood Studies, and Complex Stormwater Litigation for Atlanta and the South East -

http://www.campbellcivil.com

 

[Ron]

First of all, 2 years is not a reasonable time period for a non-compete clause. It is way too long. They are claiming they want equity with neighboring states...that's way above Florida's requirement..in fact for individual employees, Florida states that 6 months or less is reasonable and in no case shall it go beyond 2 years. They place several other restrictions on it as well.

I also wonder why they would want this to be a constitutional amendment. Why not just handle it statutorily? That way it could have flexibility as the business climate changes.

For the record..I hate non-compete agreements!

 

[beej67]

I also wonder why they would want this to be a constitutional amendment. Why not just handle it statutorily? That way it could have flexibility as the business climate changes.

I'm just guessing here, because legislative mumbo jumbo is not my strong suit, but I suspect they wanted it to be an amendment so they could stick it on a referendum and then blame "the public" for it once everyone goes apeturds.

Putting it on the ballot cruised through Georgia legislature and got rubbestamped by Sonny. I suspect because it's got big money backing from the Georgia Chamber of Commerce.


Interested to hear other people's take on it.

Hydrology, Drainage Analysis, Flood Studies, and Complex Stormwater Litigation for Atlanta and the South East -

http://www.campbellcivil.com

 

[MiketheEngineer]

From what I have seen - one year generally holds up in court. But by the time all the motions are filed, lawyers are retained, discory is taken, etc, etc, - guess what?? The year is up and the point is moot.

But - I am an engineer - call my brother the lawyer.....

And I don't like non-competes either!! Kind of smells like "No honor among thieves" to me.