Employment contracts
Non-competes that follow you out of the door, training costs that become a debt if you leave, and a bonus that was never really promised.
5 traps
Every trap Redline looks for
The worker loses overtime, paid leave, sick pay, unemployment and pension credits (RU: отпуск/больничный/стаж); the hiring SMB faces back taxes, social contributions, penalties and, in RU…
Half of the promised compensation is legally optional — sales reps lose commissions on deals closed before resignation and annual bonuses vanish in Q4 layoffs; deductions can wipe out a…
For a worker or freelancer whose whole practice is one niche this is a ban on earning; even where unenforceable, the threat letter scares off new clients; low-wage workers have been hit…
People resign from a job on the strength of an offer that vanishes; long probation with pay cuts is illegal in RU and capped in the EU; unpaid trial work is wage theft; long resignation…
It is a non-compete by another name: quitting costs $5,000-$20,000 (PetSmart groomers ~$5,000; nurses and pilots more), so workers stay in bad jobs; the FTC's 2024 rule treated TRAPs as…
What it looks like in a contract
Redline matches these phrases against your document verbatim. Drafters rarely invent new wording — they copy it, which is why the same sentences turn up across unrelated contracts.
- Contractor is an independent contractor and not an employeeFake contractor status
- bonus is discretionaryDiscretionary bonus forfeiture
- shall not, directly or indirectly, engage inPost-term non-compete
- This offer is contingent uponNon-binding offer, long probation
- training repaymentTraining cost clawback
Is it enforceable where you are
The rules differ sharply: in Germany and France a post-term non-compete is only valid if the employer pays compensation, in England it must go no further than protecting a legitimate interest, and in the US enforceability is state by state.
- Cited
- DOL
- FLSA
- Directive 2024/283
- [2021] UKSC 5
- Employment Rights Act 2025
- Uber v Aslam
- 422-ФЗ
- 565-ФЗ
- Пленум ВС № 15/2018
- ст. 5.27 ч. 4 КоАП
- ст. 6 п. 8
- 29 CFR 531.35
- Code du travail L.1331-2
- ERA 1996 s.13
Check your own contract
A lease hides different things from a loan agreement, and a privacy policy hides different things again. Pick the document on your desk and see what usually goes wrong in it.