Legal Question in Employment Law in Illinois
my previous employer had me sign a non compete agreement when I was hired, I worked there for 8 years. Our district manager wrote me up and said we would be fired if it happened again, and five other people in our department(but not everybody) for the managers not thanking customers that were sold computers by us. I didnt agree and emailed our dm after the fact telling him I didnt agree that we should not be punished for what another person did or did not do. He replied I shouldnt worry about it if all the customers were thanked. I soon after quite that job becouse I wanted to move my family out of the city to the suburbs which I put down as a reason for leaving and they knew I was going to work for another computer company and didnt say anything about it. a month later I get threatining letters from my previous employers lawyers saying Im in breach of contract and they will sue my new employer for tortous breach of contract. then the letters come to my work to my store manager and get forwarded to our lawyers saying bad things about me that I tried to recruit and contacted customers. then the old district manager comes into my new workplace and threatins me to come back to my old workplace. after that I didnt hear anything for 6 months. 9 months later my new employer is firing me saying that I am in breach and Im not employable. to add to this I know of at least one other former employee that the first employer knows about that is working for a direct competiter and they didnt go after. I also know of 5 others working for competiters that they did not go after either, I dont know if they know about those people but most likely 2 they know about and did nothing. Do I have a discrimination or retaliation case against them? sorry for my mispelling Im kinda fuming typing this becouse I cant believe they went to this great length to get me fired. Im just in sales not a exec or even management, this is retail sales.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Agreements to not work for competitors are enforceable in Illinois with a few exceptions. I have defended employees who have signed these, have gone to work for a competitor, and then were sued by the former employer seeking to enforce the non-competition agreement. The fact that the company has n ot enforced its agreement against other employees, in and of itself, is not the basis for a claim of discrimination unless the agreement was enforced or sought to be enforced against you because of your sex, race, color, gender, disability, being over the gae of 40, sexual orientation, etc.
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