Can I go to work for a former employer?

[Rtlsnke]

Arizona.
My former employer sold the business I work for and I am currently employed by the new owners. I am not happy working for this new company. My former employer has posted a job opening for a position I am fully qualified to perform and I would like to apply for that job. The problem arises with an agreement signed by my former employer and the new owners stating that he would not solicit employees of his former company. I feel this is unfair to me as an employee I should have the right to work where I want. This should not be dictated by circumstances I cannot control.

 

[quincy]

Did you sign any agreement?

Did your former employer ask you to apply?

If no to the first question, you can apply for a job with your former employer. If no to the second question, your former employer has not solicited you.

Your former employer is the one who is bound by the no-solicitation agreement and he will be the one who has to decide if hiring you violates the terms of that agreement.

 

[LdiJ]

Arizona.
My former employer sold the business I work for and I am currently employed by the new owners. I am not happy working for this new company. My former employer has posted a job opening for a position I am fully qualified to perform and I would like to apply for that job. The problem arises with an agreement signed by my former employer and the new owners stating that he would not solicit employees of his former company. I feel this is unfair to me as an employee I should have the right to work where I want. This should not be dictated by circumstances I cannot control.

Technically, soliciting former employees would mean actively asking them to come work for him. You applying for a job that has been posted is not technically soliciting. However, a lot depends on the wording of the contract between the former owner and the new owner.

Go ahead and apply for the job. Your former boss won't hire you if he doesn't feel that he is able to do so.

 

[zddoodah]

My former employer sold the business I work for and I am currently employed by the new owners. I am not happy working for this new company.

So...are you working for an entirely different company? Or are you working for the same company that is now owned by different people or a different parent company?

The problem arises with an agreement signed by my former employer and the new owners stating that he would not solicit employees of his former company. I feel this is unfair to me as an employee I should have the right to work where I want. This should not be dictated by circumstances I cannot control.

Ummm...no one has "the right to work where [he or she] wants." You don't have a right to work anywhere. You are perfectly free to apply for a job with your former employer. Whether your former employer is restricted from hiring you obviously depends on the exact language of the agreement between it and your current employer (which I assume you don't have). Without having the exact language, the best anyone can tell you is that an agreement not to solicit might not be applicable where the former employer posts a general advertisement for an employee and you apply without having been expressly solicited to do so. Also, how you answer the questions I asked at the beginning of this post may matter greatly.

 

[quincy]

The no-solicitation agreement your former employer signed should only restrict your former employer for a set period of time and generally only in a set geographic area.

The best way to find out if the former employer is restricted from hiring you might be to apply for the open position at your former employer’s new business.