As the Massachusetts legislative session comes to a close on July 31, there has been a renewed push for a bill that would "reform" current Massachusetts common law by placing various procedural and substantive restrictions on employee noncompetition agreements. (Discussion of the proposed legislation and ongoing debate can be found here and here and multiple earlier posts.) One of the bill's sponsors, Rep. William Brownsberger, reports on his website that proponents of the bill are "hoping at this stage . . . to get the legislation added in to some other package . . ." He and the other sponsor, Rep. Lori Ehrlich, authored a Boston Globe op-ed piece arguing that noncompetes are a "job-killer." Meanwhile, the Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM) continues to oppose the legislation, describing it (among several proposed bills) as "just the sort of bureaucratic tangle that discourages employers from adding the jobs that thousands of unemployed residents of the commonwealth so desperately need." In essence, one side asserts that noncompetes themselves are a "jobs-killer," and the other side counters that noncompete legislation would kill jobs in Massachusetts.
Stay tuned....
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