[Infowarrior] - Amazon reverses on the noncompete thing

[Richard Forno]

Amazon does an about-face on controversial warehouse worker non-compete contracts

Company says it's removing a clause that could keep hourly employees from working elsewhere for 18 months

	• By Josh Lowensohn
	• on March 27, 2015 06:36 pm

http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/27/8303229/amazon-reverses-noncompete-contract-rules

Amazon is rolling back a controversial non-compete clause in its contracts for warehouse workers (including temporary ones) that could have kept them from working at competing companies for a year and a half. The Guardian reports that the company is removing that from its worker contracts immediately. A company spokesperson added that "that clause hasn’t been applied to hourly associates."

A very wide-ranging clause

The controversial contract details were first reported by The Verge yesterday, and quickly drew public ire given their broad scope. Amazon sells just about everything, and the clause in question prohibited workers from going to a company that "directly or indirectly" competed with Amazon after their tenure. It was also a standard operating procedure for workers to reaffirm their contracts, which included the non-compete clause, after being laid off, in exchange for severance.

Amazon did not respond to repeated requests for comments before the publishing of The Verge's initial report on the contracts, and did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this latest change.


--
It's better to burn out than fade away.