I work for a large software company in Coastal North Carolina. We are currently being sued because my company had a gentleman's agreement to not poach each others employees. This seems like a cut and dry case as they have evidence in writing and the other company had already settled.
Come to find out that this seems to still be happening!!
A friend/colleague is leaving for another company, however they don't have an offer in writing. They had to put in their notice here and today is their last day. They won't share all the details with me because they seems to believe the other company had to ask our company for permission to hire them. Since they are leaving without a written offer, I'm guessing that they were denied. I don't know exactly who the other company is but I'm pretty sure it is one of our partners (they build and install our software for our customers) which means they would have signed a partnership agreement. The fact that my friend is going through a lot of formalities makes me think this no poach clause might be written into the actual partners agreement.
The only difference from the original case is that this is a partner that my company has a partnership contract with. I checked the employee handbook and all of the documents that I've signed and there is no Non Compete clauses anywhere, though our handbook states that my company won't hire from Partners. The fact that they put that in the Employee Handbook makes me think this might be a loop hole from the other case.
So, can anyone tell me if no poach agreements are legal with partners?
I've found out about 3 others today that also left for partners that are making 2-3 times what we make.