Critical Intervention Services files non-compete contract lawsuit against security officer
Tampa FL October 25 2018
Michael Kenny’s 13-day stint at Critical Intervention Services (CIS), a Florida private security company in Florida, was short but consequential.
The employment contract he signed with CIS in January, 2017 has effectively blocked him from working as a security guard in Florida ever since — but Kenny’s contract was hardly unique. In fact, the countersuits that Kenny and CIS subsequently filed against each other illuminate a bitter argument about workers’ rights that is currently raging across the country.
According to his lawsuit, after several days of training and orientation with CIS, Kenny, 52, was assigned his first shift patrolling an apartment complex in South St. Petersburg from 7 pm to 7 am.
A veteran and single father, Kenny claims he couldn’t find child care during that time slot. When he asked for a different schedule, Kenny claims in his legal complaint that CIS told him to work his assigned shift or resign. Lawyers for CIS deny the company told Kenny to resign and even offered to find a more accommodating assignment, but Kenny quit the $11.75-an-hour job.
His only paycheck was docked to repay CIS for advancing him the cost of the state-required training that the firm coordinated, as per the terms of his contract, which required repayment if he resigned within 120 days.
The story might reasonably be expected to have ended there, but it didn’t. When Kenny started working at another local security firm, monitoring closed circuit cameras at a local bank, CIS wrote to his new employer claiming that Kenny had signed a noncompete clause and thus had illegally taken valuable proprietary information and specialized training with him. The new employer soon fired Kenny.
And so the litigation began. Kenny filed a lawsuit against CIS, seeking more than $15,000 in damages and a declaratory judgement that the noncompete clause he signed was unenforceable. CIS countersued for $50,000, and the case is headed for trial next year. Lawyers for CIS claim Kenny benefited from over 60 hours of classroom and field training featuring the firm’s specialized security expertise, training and techniques — all of which represent a legitimate business interest previously recognized by courts in other cases involving noncompete clauses. Lawyers for CIS also assert that Kenny “went to work, not only for a direct competitor, but for an existing CIS client,” and that he did not give CIS the opportunity to work with him on a possible waiver of the non-compete.
Not surprisingly, Kenny’s attorney has a different take.
“I have seen thousands of non-compete agreements and been involved in hundreds of non-compete disputes,” said Jonathan Pollard of Pollard PLLC, who is representing Kenny for free along with colleague Alexander Gil. “This is about money and greed. Companies use non-compete agreements to lock up talent, restrict employee mobility and suppress wages and corporate law firms generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue every year from prosecuting bogus non-compete cases.”
Th Guardian
