Are employers allowed to require employees to sign a non-disclosure agreement?
Yes, employers in North Carolina are allowed to require employees to sign a non-disclosure agreement. A non-disclosure agreement (NDA) is a legal document between two or more parties that restricts the sharing of confidential information. This agreement is usually signed between an employer and an employee and prevents the employee from publicly disclosing the employer’s proprietary business information or trade secrets. In North Carolina, employers are allowed to ask any employee to sign an NDA at the time of hire or later on during employment. It is also common for employers to ask independent contractors to sign a NDA in order to protect their business interests. Generally, North Carolina employers are not restricted in the type of information they can include in a non-disclosure agreement, however, they cannot require employees or independent contractors to sign an NDA that is overly broad and contains information that is not related to the employer’s trade secrets. In addition, North Carolina employers cannot require employees to sign a non-compete agreement which is different from a non-disclosure agreement. A non-compete agreement requires an employee to agree not to compete with their employer or solicit its customers for a certain period of time after the agreement is in place. North Carolina employers may ask employees to sign a non-compete agreement, but each agreement is evaluated on a case by case basis.
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