New York’s governor vetoed a bill days before Christmas that would have banned noncompete agreements, which restrict workers’ ability to leave their job for a role with a rival business.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, who said she tried to work with the Legislature on a “reasonable compromise” this year, called the bill “a one-size-fits-all-approach” for New York companies legitimately trying to retain top talent.

“I continue to recognize the urgent need to restrict non-compete agreements for middle-class and low-wage workers, and am open to future legislation that achieves the right balance,” she wrote in a veto letter released Saturday.

The veto is a blow to labor groups, who have long argued that the agreements hurt workers and stifle economic growth. The Federal Trade Commission had also sent a letter to Hochul in November, urging her to sign the bill and saying that the agreements can harm innovation and prevent new businesses from forming in the state.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Why the fuck do they even need a non-compete clause for a sandwich shop? Are they worried people are going to reveal their secret Jimmy Johns technique for putting salami on bread to Subway?

      • mindbleach
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        11 months ago

        Unskilled just means you can be trained on-the-job. You don’t need years of prior schooling or government certification to make a sub, unless it’s the kind with torpedoes.

    • jonne@infosec.pub
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      11 months ago

      It’s legal for them to do so, and if employees can’t go to a competitor, it has the effect of depressing wages.

      Non-compete clauses make sense for certain higher level employees (and usually involve some sort of garden leave payment too) but corporate America has started to slip all sorts of bullshit into standard employment contracts just because they can.

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        I don’t even think it makes sense for them anymore. You either retain them with pay and job satisfaction or not. This idea that corporations can own experience is bullshit.

        • ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Kinda like the whole Disney artist thing.

          Any character you create while working for Disney is Disney property. Even if it was a quick sketch done on a napkin. Even if the character doesn’t even have a name.

    • Asafum@feddit.nl
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      11 months ago

      I mean you joke, but that actually happened by me lol

      There is a hero shop that is well known for specific heros they make that are really good, so after they fired a guy who worked there for years and years he opened his own shop and took all their recipes plus added pizza. (He also hired someone to make pizza and then fired him after he learned how to do it. He’s just a scumbag lol)

    • variaatio@sopuli.xyz
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      11 months ago

      It isn’t about need, but about want. Every extra notch of control they can get over workers employment opportunities, they want.