Amazon Workers Must Sign 18-Month Non-Compete Agreements

rudy said:
This is another one I have no problem with. If you are familiar with Asia it is absolutely mind boggling the shit that will go on over there. Companies will force a person to wear a specific uniform to work. And oh BTW you have to buy that uniform. And that uniform costs as much as you make in a month and can only be acquired directly from the company itself so they garnish your wages for months, oh and rofl you know of course if you quit you have to return the uniform.
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There was a time this was actually common in the US. Miners having to buy gear from the company store, rent a bed... is one of the best examples. Migrant farmers paying for supplies and lodgings is another. Reminds me of the old college book store. 100 for a text book, 5 dollar buyback even if book looks new. Textbook change at least once a year to prevent to many used one from existing. Amazing what you can do with a captive target demographic.
 
pothb said:
Wait.... so they can't ask you to have a car, in case you need to move back and forth between 2 buildings?
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You can ask the question if it necessary for the job. If they don't prove a car they and they require you to have one for work they will have to provide maintenance in relation to the hardship they have given you by forcing you to use your car for work. Traveling between two buildings on a regular basis they should provide a gas card, or tack on an allowance extra to your paycheck based on how much you'll be using your car for work. They cannot ask if you have a car in order to guess if you'll be using public transportation to get to work or guess your current assets.
 
rudy said:
The grew area in the USA gets to be when there is a dress code but not exactly a uniform. Where they say stuff like you need certain colored clothes and styles. I still think in these cases they should be forced to provide something if the employee wishes. I remember my sister buying a bunch of clothes for a temporary job and I was like why would you waste the money are you even going to make any money when its all said and done? Anyhow companies love this shit because it forces employees to be loyal to some degree because once they are invested in the company its hard to break free when so many other companies do similar shit.
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Yeah california is much stricter when it comes to "dress codes" you can't specify too much without it counting as a uniform. Although they can definitely ban like wearing jeans or skirts or yoga pants pretty easily. If they like require you to wear specifically a red shirt that would constitute as a uniform meaning they would have to provide. While a red shirt is not uncommon for street clothing when they specified it as something you must own it made it a uniform. Alot of other states you can get away with alot more in dress codes as opposed to uniform.
 
This is very much enforceable in Georgia. They changed the constitution to make it so. Hell, Amazon could even sue you for your profits if you decided to become a competitor to them
 
John721 said:
Every company that sells goods or certain services competes with Amazon in some capacity...

Would Amazon really go to the expense of monitoring low level employees that have quit and sue them?
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it's just a scare tactic.

In most states these non-competes are completely unenforceable.
 
If you make non-competes illegal that'll mean killingj obs.
 
OEM said:
If you make non-competes illegal that'll mean killingj obs.
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Ahh, the good old conservative argument.

Anything I don't like results in killing jobs :rolleyes: :p

Please explain your logical rationale behind this.

Here's how I see it:

I'm company A, I need people to get my project/operations done.

I may feel more comfortable hiring people I know are not going to run off with my trade secrets to the competition, but in the grand scheme of things, if I need the people to get the job done, I need the people to get the job done. if I didn't need the people to get the job done, I wouldn't be interested in hiring them anyway, as that introduces costs.

In other words, regulating non-competes would IMHO, have only minute impacts (if any at all) on jobs, and would have huge benefits on peoples lives.

I'm not suggesting that they be illegal overall, to a certain extent they make sense. If you are working on company A's wearable computer eyeglass project, it seems reasonable to request that you don't work on Company B's wearable computer eyeglass project for a year after leaving the company.

Unfortunately too many of these non competes read more like, "you've worked in our engineering department, and because of this you can't work in anyone else's engineering department for a year". What is an engineer to do? Take a year long vacation? Who can afford that?

Overly broad non-competes ruin lives, and one that prevents low end warehouse workers from working for competitors (which someone pointed out, just about everyone who has a warehouse is a competitor to Amazon) for 18 months is most definitely overly broad, and ought to be illegal.
 
Ah, yes, just another step towards these mega-corps actually owning your ass.
When B cyberpunk movies become reality! :D

At least Amazon is one of the good ones.
Just imagine Best Buy doing this to their employees.

To quote Shang Tsung:

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i960 said:
Non-competes are almost 100% thrown out as invalid. You can't tell someone they aren't allowed to work for someone else, just because it's in a similar industry or a competing company.
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ROFL actually you can, it's called signing your rights away just like with an NDA, same reason you can't work for an R&D company and then sell the secrets to another company or start your own with their secrets.
If you don't like the non-compete clause then don't sign it, if they still say you need to sign it or you can't work there then YOU have a choice to make. Do you want to work for the company or not? If you do, then you abide by their rules, if you don't like the rules then find another job somewhere else. Fucking entitlement seriously...
 
FiveFig said:
ROFL actually you can, it's called signing your rights away just like with an NDA, same reason you can't work for an R&D company and then sell the secrets to another company or start your own with their secrets.
If you don't like the non-compete clause then don't sign it, if they still say you need to sign it or you can't work there then YOU have a choice to make. Do you want to work for the company or not? If you do, then you abide by their rules, if you don't like the rules then find another job somewhere else. Fucking entitlement seriously...
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Uh, what? The are almost always unenforceable. That's a fact. Some states are retarded about this, but others like California where I live are not. You can ask someone to sign something all day long, that doesn't make it legal or enforceable. What if the company made you sign something stating you would work for 12 hours straight without a break, no food, no access to water, or a bathroom. Good luck enforcing it. Companies can't just go circumventing laws because they feel like it. And how the hell is it entitlement that I should have the right to use my talents to seek gainful employment? What makes companies entitled to control peoples lives for their own profit? If a company can't abide by the law, then they don't deserve to be in business. Running a business is not a right. Fucking entitlement seriously...
 
As long as its restricted to other warehouse model businesses, I think its reasonable.

Amazon will teach warehouse workers all the latest and greatest processes that make Amazon so g'damn efficient.

If I had a similar warehouse model distribution system, you bet your ass I would hire up anybody that worked in an amazon warehouse and could give me a blow-by-blow of the workflow for Amazon's operations so I can copy it.
 
I would work for Amazon they are building a warehouse south of here. Walmart for me is trying to carry a 8 pack 2 liter of soda 40 feet only to find out there is no space in the bin or it goes somewhere else in the bin.
 
Funny this thread came about, I just got a threatening letter from a former employer about a non-compete clause. I work as a researcher at my university and I happen to be in a research group that does research funded by a competitor. I threw it in the trash.
 
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