Illegal. The confidentiality agreement has a time limit.
Article 23 of China's Labor Contract Law stipulates that the employer and the employee may agree in the labor contract to keep the business secrets of the employer and confidential matters related to intellectual property rights. For the workers who have the obligation of confidentiality, the employer may stipulate the non-competition clause with the workers in the labor contract or confidentiality agreement, and stipulate that after the labor contract is dissolved or terminated, the economic compensation will be paid to the workers on a monthly basis during the non-competition period. If the laborer violates the non-competition agreement, he shall pay liquidated damages to the employer in accordance with the agreement. Article 24 The personnel who are restricted from competition are limited to the senior managers, senior technicians and other personnel with confidentiality obligations of the employing unit. The scope, area and time limit of non-competition shall be agreed by the employer and the employee, and the agreement on non-competition shall not violate the provisions of laws and regulations. After the dissolution or termination of the labor contract, if the personnel specified in the preceding paragraph go to other employers that have a competitive relationship with their own units to produce or operate similar products or engage in similar businesses, or start their own businesses to produce or operate similar products or engage in similar businesses, the non-competition period shall not exceed two years. Therefore, the open-ended agreement you signed for more than two years is partially invalid, and the unit will also pay you economic compensation within two years.
If the employee discloses or uses it without authorization after leaving the company, it will constitute infringement, which will seriously constitute the crime of infringing trade secrets. For general confidential information, employees generally do not assume confidentiality obligations after leaving their jobs. Many enterprises usually stipulate that the confidentiality period during their employment and after leaving is 2 to 3 years. Such an agreement will cause misunderstanding to employees, that is, they can disclose or use trade secrets two to three years after leaving their jobs. Such an agreement is not desirable. Therefore, enterprises should stipulate that the confidentiality period of trade secrets should be during the term of office and indefinitely after leaving the company; For general confidential information, it is advisable to stipulate a confidentiality period of 2 or 3 years.
The above is Bian Xiao's opinion on the legality of the indefinite confidentiality agreement. If you have legal questions to consult, you can pay attention to non-litigation and private letter consultation.