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Georgia's Amendment 1

Posted by: admin 14 years ago

I'm breaking a rule here: blogging about politics. 

Imagine that you are a real estate agent.  If Amendment 1 to the Georgia Constitution on the ballot tomorrow passes you may start to see Non-compete clauses in your independent contractor agreements.   These clauses would forbid you from working for a competitor for some period of time, say 24 months.  If that happened, how many Realtors (tm) could afford to switch brokers?   How would that new power affect broker/agent relations?  Now, multiply that across every industry.

If the language that voters saw to vote on such a drastic loss of rights read:

 “Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended so as to make Georgia more economically competitive by authorizing legislation to uphold reasonable competitive agreements?”

Would you think "Hmm. That's a bold faced lie".  Many people do think exactly that. 

In my experience as an entrepreneur, I have been on both sides of employment agreements.  I know that the state of Georgia's laws favor employees - it is a "Right to work" state.  However, I always felt that with non-solicitation and confidentiality clauses and proper IP protection,  employers were fine.  I also had no problem as an employee signing such an agreement.

Capitalism is inherently destructive.  The ability for employees to move about freely forces employers to compete which makes them stronger. Stronger companies are better for Georgia.  The change would make Georgia less competitive. 

This constitutional amendment represents a loss of rights presented as a gain for the state. It should be rejected. 

 #VoteNoOn1

 

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