Many employers were encouraged when a federal court in Texas last month blocked the enforcement of a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) prohibition against essentially all non-compete employment agreements in Ryan, LLC v. FTC. The FTC proposed rule would have required employers to provide notice to workers that any non-competes would not be enforced and that the worker was free to seek or accept a job with a competitor. While the FTC is currently precluded from enforcing an across-the-board prohibition on non-competes, the FTC has signaled its intent to individually target any non-competes that it maintains are in violation of antitrust laws.
Now, another agency, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), has entered the fray. Expanding on her prior guidance from May 2023, the NLRB's General Counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, issued a Guidance Memorandum outlining the agency's objectives regarding non-compete agreements and stay-or-pay agreements. While the NLRB governs union-management relations and concerted conduct in the workplace, General Counsel Abruzzo has indicated it is her belief that many non-competes violate federal labor laws regardless of whether the workforce is unionized. How did the NLRB get here and what are the takeaways for employers?
In May of 2023, NLRB General Counsel Abruzzo issued a Guidance Memorandum in which she stated the position that an employer violates Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) by requiring (or even...
Topline Alexander Smirnov, the former FBI informant who was accused earlier this year of making false statements about President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, was indicted Tuesday on unrelate...