Written by: Jim Hansen
Sunday, March 09, 2008

Senate Bill 1393 is what some legislators hopped on the private plane back to Boise to vote for. It gives private employers more power to prevent key former employees or independent contractors from going to work for the competition. A similar bill died last year but this year it had enough lift to take off and clear the Senate by a vote of 25-10. “Non-compete” clauses are common in the private sector. When they unreasonably infringe on the ability of a former key employee to get another job, courts have sometimes voided them.

What does the employer want to protect? The bill says it includes all those things the employer has invested in the employee including “the employer's goodwill, technologies, intellectual property, business plans, business processes and methods of operation, customers, customer lists, customer contacts and referral sources, vendors and vendor contacts, financial and marketing information.”

One would think that YOU as the employer of key public officials might want some minimal protection too. Republican leaders have said forget it and have refused to hold a hearing on Senate Bill 1302 that would limit key public employees from taking all these public assets and immediately going to work for a private company lobbying their former employer. Sen. Curt McKenzie of Nampa is refusing to hold public hearings on SB1302. Call 322-1326 and demand that he bring this up for a hearing and ask why private employers get preferential treatment over you, the public employer?

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