Terri Gerstein (’95), Director of the State and Local Enforcement Project at the Harvard Law School Center for Labor and a Just Economy, authored an article for The American Prospect outlining the harms of noncompete provisions and citing broader business lobby efforts automatically opposing pro-worker protections (“Business Groups’ Reflexive Anti-Worker Demagogy,” Nov. 13). “[I]t should be emphasized that noncompete agreements represent an egregious infringement of workers’ freedom. This is supposed to be a country where people can at least take whatever jobs are available, not become effectively tied to an employer through slanted contracts reminiscent of feudalism. . . . Business associations nationwide too often reflexively oppose laws infringing on their power over workers without offering serious analysis of the issues at hand. But knee-jerk doomsday predictions devoid of data shouldn’t receive the deferential credence that policymakers sometimes give them.”
