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tj_kirk64

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Indiana

I work in the cable industry and was a contractor until 12/31/08. At this time our contract ended and we were hired by the company that I contracted to as a W-2 employee. I worked for this company for two weeks and was terminated. I am trying to get hired at a competitor in the same town (there are only 2), and was informed that I have a 6 month no hire agreement in force. So I cannot work until june 30, 2009.

Now, there are no trade secrets of any kind involved here and I was not given any kind of compensation for this so called agreement. Also I was told there is a gentlemans agreement in force that prevents me from working for the competition for 6 months.

The company I want to go to wants to hire me but cannot due to this agreement, they are W-2 based as well.

I was told that these agreements cannot be enforced and in fact are illegal. Is this true or not and do I have any recourse?

Thanks a bunch
 


cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
I am not aware of any laws that prohibit such "gentlemens' agreements" not to hire each other's employees. Sometimes "I'd like to hire you but I have an agreement that says I won't hire former employees of Company A" translates to, "I'm not interested in hiring you but I don't want to say so outright so I'm going to blame it on an agreement with your old employer".

Bottom line - under the circumstance you describe, if he wanted to hire you badly enough, he would.
 

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