[NY] How can I enforce non-solicitation and non-compete agreements for cleaning staff?

Lexi, Chatbot

I understand that you want to protect your business interests, which is very important. Have you already drafted any agreements or clauses for your employees and subcontractors?

Lexi, Chatbot

Are you currently facing any specific issues with employees or subcontractors working directly with your customers?

Howardk06131

Hello, I am Howard, an attorney here to assist you.

Howardk06131

The courts will uphold non-compete agreements. They must serve a legitimate business interest, and they must be limited in scope and location. There is a pending bill to ban non-competes for workers such as cleaners that you have.

There is a legislative bill that has not been signed yet that would ban these agreements, but currently they are enforceable.

The non-compete must be limited to no more than 1 year to be enforceable, and the location must be reasonable and limited to where you do business.

Non-solicitation agreements are more readily upheld. Again, a time period must be in place. It has to have a limited time frame and location to where you do business. It cannot say “any customer,” but only customers that the employee had some contact with within a certain period prior — customers they had real contact with or learned about through confidential information.

Howardk06131

To protect your current clients, you’ll want to create a non-solicitation agreement that clearly states employees cannot work directly with your clients outside of your business relationship.

You should include:

• A clear definition of what constitutes a “client” or “customer.”

• The specific actions that are prohibited, such as accepting direct employment or contracts from these clients.

• The duration of the restriction (often 6–12 months).

Howardk06131

A non-solicitation agreement can accomplish that if it is specific and clearly states there is a period of time they cannot contact customers they came in contact with while working for you, and that they cannot accept them.

However, courts are reluctant to enforce it when the worker does not contact the customer but the customer solicits them. The law says that active contact on behalf of the employee can be prohibited, but if the customer reaches out to the employee, the court may not necessarily enforce it.

You would want to have it all in one agreement with two sections: non-competition and non-solicitation.

If these are existing workers, the law says you must give them something in exchange for signing (called “consideration”) since they are already employed.