Legal Question in Employment Law in Pennsylvania

Re: My security job

You asked about an employment agreement that disallows a person from applying for an in-house position.

Employment law is always very fact specific. You need to review all agreements you signed and see if that clause is there. Then you need to determine if that clause is enforceable. It is very likely that such a clause is not enforceable. In either case, your employer CANNOT prohibit you from applying for any job whatsoever. An employer can prohibit you from accepting employment (or the client from employing a former employee) in very limited circumstances.

Rather, the way that employers prevent employees from going over to a client is by including a "penalty" for the client "stealing" the employee. For example, such a clause would state 'If the client hires any person who was employed by employer with six months of employment by employer then client shall pay a finders fee equal to X percent of the employee's first year base wages.'

In such a circumstance the employer's contract with the client causes the client to reconsider hiring the employee. But in most circumstances the client will hire a desirable employee and pay the fee, often gladly.

If you are considering such a position you should review your employment file (an employer must allow you access to this file) and see what your employment documents state. It would also behoove you to have an attorney look at your employment documents. If there are others similarly situated then you could allocate the cost among all those folks.

Regards,

Roger