rebeccam73
New Member
I was fired from my job of one year for not signing a non-compete contract that I felt would cause my family financial hardship. I am the sole income provider for my family. I worked for a Lasik office for one year; upon hiring I was told I would not have to signing a non-compete contract. Recently one of our surgeons left our office. Rumor has it the surgeon who left will establish his own practice in the next two months. One week before the surgeon left we were told our company was updating forms to include our new name, and all employees would have to sign a non-compete. The non-compete contract states that I cannot seek employment in a 35mile radius from the clinic. I was the only one not to sign. I raised the objection that I wasn't in a "key" position; I don't know any company secrets, that I am a technician. Due to the fact that my job is so industry specific and we can't predict the down turns in the economy, I felt that 35 miles would be too much. The clinic is right on the oregon/washington border and 35 miles would include Oregon. The Doctors are not licensed in the state of Oregon. My concern is: if the economy went down and business dropped and my hours were cut then I would have to find another job to provide for my family. During the two-day negation process the company would compromise to 20 miles and the surgeon who left would be named specifically. I felt that 20 miles would be acceptable, but naming the specific surgeon would almost be discrimination and said that if the company named the specific surgeon than the company would have to name every other surgeon in the 20 radius. They told me they had no problem for me to work with another surgeon just not the one they wanted to specifically name. I told them that 20 miles would include all surgeons in a 20-mile radius therefore no specific surgeon needed to be named. Because I wouldn't sign a contract that specially mentioned the surgeon that recently left they fired me. They gave me a statement that said that my employment was terminated due to not signing a non-compete, not because of wrongdoing. Is this retaliation for pointing out that they were discriminating against the surgeon who recently left?
