Top 3 employee mobility, restrictive covenant issues to watch for in 2021

As the COVID-19 cloud starts to lift (thanks to several vaccines), we expect employers will slowly begin to reopen their offices, employees will travel more, and the job market may revert back to the low unemployment levels predating the coronavirus’ onset in early 2020. The ever-changing landscape of restrictive covenants, including noncompetes and nonsolicitation agreemnents, certainly could affect the looming employment-related activity. Here are our early predictions for the top three related hot-button issues to look out for this year.

Federal government won’t eliminate all noncompetes this year

Recent discussion has focused on the Biden administration’s proposal to ban one or more forms of noncompetition agreements on a national level. Before he was sworn in, President-elect Joe Biden released a “Plan for Strengthening Worker Organizing, Collective Bargaining, and Unions,” which stated:

Biden will work with Congress to eliminate all noncompete agreements, except the very few that are absolutely necessary to protect a narrowly defined category of trade secrets, and outright ban all nonpoaching agreements.

The plan comes after several attempts by federal lawmakers to curtail noncompete agreements through legislation, though no such bill has passed either the House or the Senate despite bipartisan support in some cases. Among the efforts was the Workforce Mobility Act, reintroduced in October 2019, with both Democratic and Republican support.