Alternative to noncompete agreements under consideration by Legislature

by Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix
March 17, 2025

Although a number of states have passed legislation empowering workers by barring companies from binding them with noncompete agreements, the Florida Legislature is looking at an alternative known as “garden leave agreements.”

A bill (SB 922) proposed by Ormond Beach Republican Tom Leek would establish the framework for these arrangements, through which an employee typically is relieved of duty yet technically remains employed and therefore cannot go to work for a competitor.

They are free to tend their gardens, as it were, while retaining pay and benefits.

The bill states that these agreements would require advance notice of up to, but no more than, four years before terminating the employment or contractor relationship.

The law would only apply to employees most likely to have access to sensitive information, Leek said, as well as to those who make at least twice the annual mean wage of employees in Florida, plus workers party to confidential employer information.

Leek, a labor-and-employment attorney, told the Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee on Monday that it was important to distinguish between noncompete agreements, which restrict former employees from certain activities, and a garden leave agreement, whereby the employee keeps the job but provides no services to that employer.

Jacksonville Democratic Sen. Tracie Davis noted that most noncompete agreements last between one and two years. Why should the state allow garden leave agreements of up to four years?

Leek referenced the moves made by the Federal Trade Commission last year to adopt a comprehensive ban on new noncompetes with all workers, including senior executives (the ban was overturned by a federal judge in Texas last August).

“Florida is poised to become one of the finance capitals of the world,” Leek said. “And if we want to attract those kinds of clean, high-paying jobs, you have to provide those businesses protection on the investment that they’re making and their employees.”

Orange County Democratic Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith noted that noncompete contracts are falling widely into disfavor. As of last fall, four states banned them and 33 restricted their use, according to the Economic Innovation Group.

“Are we not disincentivizing them coming to Florida because, unlike other states, we have strengthened the ability for employers to require noncompete rather than rolling them back like other states,” Smith said.

Leek said he didn’t believe that was the case. In his own practice, “I don’t see a current trend dialing back restrictive covenants. I saw the federal government try it, and it failed and it didn’t happen.”

Out of favor with public

John Navarra was the only member of the public to address the committee. He said he opposes the bill because he fears that while the measure is currently aimed only at employees who have sensitive information, it could spread to additional workers.

He mentioned that he has worked as a grocery clerk at a Winn-Dixie.

“What happened if I lost my job at Winn-Dixie and I went to Publix, and I said, ‘Please give me a job so that I can put milk on the shelf, something as simple as that, and Publix could not hire me. It’s an outrage that the state of Florida would try to keep working people down by limiting their opportunities,” he said.

While businesses highly favor noncompete contracts, polls have shown that the majority of Americans don’t like them. An IPSOS public opinion survey conducted last May found that 59% of Americans supported the FTC’s proposal to ban such agreements.

The measure passed on a party-line 6-3 vote, with all Republicans in support and all Democrats dissenting.

A House companion has been filed by Tampa Bay area Republican Traci Koster (HB 1219).

Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.

The post Alternative to noncompete agreements under consideration by Legislature appeared first on floridaphoenix.com