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Written Letter of Release Needed

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crashedapp

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Nevada

I would like to take a job with a new company. The new company will not hire me without a written letter of release from my current employer.

The sticky details:
The company I wish to work for is a client of my current company. I have a contract that clearly states that I MAY solicit employment from our customers (This has already been confirmed by the company lawyer in email).

My company has told me that they will only give me a written letter of release if the company that wants to hire me makes good on all debts that they have been arguing about.

Whether the company I wish to work for actually needs the letter is a moot point. They won't touch me without it. My understanding is that the letter has to have some wording in it that says my company agrees not to sue the other company for hiring me. My company says they will claim that the other company is destroying their business if they hire me away.


What can I do?
Is it legal for my company to attempt to use me as some sort of bargaining chip?
Do I have any legal recourse?
 


cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
You're in a tough situation and it's unfair of the two companies to put you in the middle, but unfortunately I don't see any legal recourse for you.

Your current employer has no legal obligation to write you a release, whether or not all outstanding debts are paid or not. Nothing in the law requires them to write a release under any circumstances.

The prospective employer is not violating any laws by insisting on the release, although in my opinion of they're that worried that they'll be sued for hiring you, they shouldn't hire you in the first place. (Nothing against you - against their legal department.)

You're caught between a rock and a hard place where two company's legal "rights" collide.

You might want to talk to a lawyer of your own. Not, please, the legal counsel for either company but someone totally unconnected. Not to file a lawsuit; you have no standing to sue. But someone to act as an intermediary to work all this out before you end up losing one or both jobs.
 

crashedapp

Junior Member
Employer Blocked employment.

This is Nevada. The Job I would like to take is in Phoenix AZ.

More has happened since I posted the original message:
When I asked my employer for a letter of release, they told me they would think about it. In the mean time they appended to a contract with what I told them was my future employer, a non-solicitation agreement. They basically gave the company a discount if they would sign the agreement not to solicit employees. Any way it turns out that the company I was going to work for didn't legally need a letter of release at that time, but now with this new contract they absolutely do.

Do I have any recourse now?
They went out of their way to make sure I couldn't work for the company.
BTW, this wouldn't be such a big deal to me if I was planning on staying in the same city. The reason I pursued this was it was an out of state move that would put us in the same city as our family. Making an employment jump from State to State isn't exactly easy.

Saying no was one thing, but this seems pretty rediculous.
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
In my opinion, no, you still do not have any recourse based on what you have posted.

However, it would do you no harm to speak to an employment attorney in the event that details you have not or cannot put on a message board may make a difference.
 

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