Oregon recently enacted HB2992, further limiting its already restrictive non-compete law, which will apply to any agreements entered on or after January 1, 2020. The new law amends Oregon's prior non-compete law by requiring the employer, as a condition of the non-compete' s enforceability, to provide a signed, written copy of the terms of the non-compete agreement to the employee within thirty days of the termination of employment. This is effectively a mandatory reminder, as Oregon's non-compete law already required the employer to inform the employee at the outset of employment of the non-compete agreement, either two weeks prior to the employee's first day of employment or as part of a bona fide advancement of the employee. Oregon's non-compete law also already required that the employee be in an "administrative, executive, or professional" position and have access to trade secrets, other competitively sensitive information, or be "on-air" talent subject to other restrictions.
Oregon's state legislature thus created a new hoop for employers to jump through before it can subject a limited subset of employees to non-competes. Oregon's mandatory reminder at the end of an employee's employment, and not just at the beginning, further aligns its non-compete law with one of the Obama administration's final mandates for state legislators to improve the transparency and fairness of non-competes.
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