Employer's perspective

I do agree that the employees need to have the credentials to be able to bargain and influence a decision in their favour. But when we look at the scenario presented or any contention between an employer and employee, we need to analyse it from the perspective of the employer as well. Here I agree with the comments posted by Sunny that the employer also needs to be given the due credit of the intellectual property developed.
While we talk of open source development issue or any IPR issue, let us also look at the rationale of introducing such clauses in the contract. Most of us have been in the favour of employees where their sovereignty related to their knowledge and innovation cannot be breached upon. But there could be a scenario where in the employee extends the research, code developed by an organization for further innovation. If these codes are available in an open source environment, then the company may lose its competitive edge and the costs associated while developing these new platforms. This matter takes a subjective outlook since the company has no protection against its own intellect property that it shares with the employee. There are many organizations which require the employees to sign a non confidentiality agreement regarding the platform and source that they work upon. It really depends upon the employees to abide by the agreement but then it offers the employer to contend litigation if a breach is known if such confidentiality is crucial for business success.