New contract at work

[gcol]

Got home tonight and found a letter from work which was basically a new contract - they want me to sign it and hand it back. (why the couldn't just hand them out to us all instead of posting I don't know)
Anyway, all seems reasonable apart from one bit and I just wondered if any smart folk on here can advise. What it seems to say is that if I leave (or am asked to leave) the company that I am prohited to take up employment with a competitor of the company for a period of 6 months.

I've never heard of this sort of thing before and it seems a bit out of order. Is this something that the company could legally persue if the situation arose?

 

[Tim 77]

How can they enforce it? I'm an electrician, I've just left a big firm in Nottingham to work for a smaller firm, they could argue that my new firm is in competition with them, should I change profession for 6 months?


P.s-WTF is gardening leave?

 

[FredFlintstone]

Unless they're willing to return the favour of providing you with a six month notice period the it could uite easily be deemed to be an unfair term within a contract and as such, unenforcable.

regards

Fred

 

[BoxBasher]

There doesn't appear to be any consequence listed. Does it mention anywhere else in the contract what the their actions would be for any breach of a part of the contract?

 

[Mw Roofline]

Yes this is correct and and is a firm contract. A lot of large and small companies have this in their contract terms and is enforceable should you break it.

Its ususlly qualification or customer based.

Qualification: You come and work for me and I spend 20k on sending u on a dogs danglies course and then after just a few weeks you go and **** off somewhere else! With a firm contract I could make you pay me the course money back!

Customers: You work for me at my pub, no training course this time but I make you sign a contract to say you can't go and work at the nags head down the road purely because I know you are going to take my customers there!

 

[Thermo]

vaguely remember something from when i studied employment law that a restrictive clause like that cant be put into a contract. double check before you sign it.

 

[Adam_151]

There doesn't appear to be any consequence listed. Does it mention anywhere else in the contract what the their actions would be for any breach of a part of the contract?

It would be up to them to prove to a court how much they have been left out of pocket as a result of your breach of contract, even if they do have something written there, if you refused to pay it, that would then be the breach of contract, and they'd have to prove that it wasn't a penatly clause

IANYL, of course

 

[Thermo]

Ah ha this pretty much sums it up, hey not bad i only studied this 20 years ago!

http://www.out-law.com/page-7086

i think they would be hard pressed to enforce a uk wide restriction. I dont think it is legal on face value.

 

[tim west]

line through the bits you disagree with and initial them if you feel the need to sign it.
Or simply don't send it back, you have a current contract(hopefully) and if happy with that one say you don't wish to sign the new one.

Unless of course you are on a temporary contract?

 

[Trazor]

That seems over the top.
The only contract I have seen similar to that, included an exclusion zone of 20 miles radius, thus preventing you from competing locally.
What if you were to move 100 miles away.....

Not to sure about its legality, restraint of trade etc.

Are you under any pressure to sign it...?

( Gardening leave, is when you get paid for stopping at home. )

 

[gcol]

Don't worry, I'm not signing anything until I've looked into it. Or if I do sign it, under the signature I'll be writing "except 15.2".
The trouble is, what I do is pretty specialised and if I were to leave it would probably be to a competitor so what they're basically saying is that I can't work in the same industry if I leave the company. Surely this cannot be right?

 

[JohnD]

the idea is to prevent you stealing their customers.

e.g. if you were a bikini-waxer, from setting up a parlour across the road from theirs and enticing all your old clients inside.

It is most often used against salesmen and merchant bankers who are likely to walk off with a contacts book. In this case, if you tried to poach all your old clients to the new company, they might be able to enforce it.

IIRC there was an employment tribunal a while back where it was (as Fred says) ruled unenforcable because the empoye was (e.g. a plasterer or something) working in a small town; he wasn't skilled in anything else, so the clause would have put him out of work for 6 months, which was deemed unreasonable.

It was said at the time that if he had lived e.g. in London, his employers might have been able to stop him setting up in the same area, but not if he worked a couple of boroughs away.

BTW "Gardening Leave" means being paid to sit at home doing nothing but prune your roses, so (1) it gets you out of the office during your notice period so you won't be hanging around making a nuisance of yourself (2) it will probably prevent you taking up employment anywhere else. When I was working at a well-known life assurance co in Norwich, one of my chums was made redundant and was entitled to a long notice period, and put on gardening leave, he was so angry that he was willing to look for another job straight away and do it unpaid just so the company couldn't stop paying him.

 

[material.buyer]

Yes this is correct and and is a firm contract. A lot of large and small companies have this in their contract terms and is enforceable should you break it.

Its ususlly qualification or customer based.

Qualification: You come and work for me and I spend 20k on sending u on a dogs danglies course and then after just a few weeks you go and f***** off somewhere else! With a firm contract I could make you pay me the course money back!

I agree with this being legally enforcable

Customers: You work for me at my pub, no training course this time but I make you sign a contract to say you can't go and work at the nags head down the road purely because I know you are going to take my customers there!

No.

customers: This is not legally enforcable under statute law in the contract regulations act (I will find the proper bit later) if it would deny the person a chance of earning a living. If you are going to take customers when you leave, thats the companies own lookout. However, there are parts of contracts that can stop people activly seeking people to go with the person leaving.

For example. I work for AN Builders Merchant. I deal with many customers.. This term is in my contract. If I leave and go to work for XY Builders Merchant and the customers leave AN to buy from me, there is nothing AN merchant can do, as if they tried to stop me working there, they would deny me the chance of earning a living. Therefore it it UNFAIR in a court of law.

[/b]

 

[gcol]

What if you were to move 100 miles away.....

It says "in the UK"

Are you under any pressure to sign it...?

No not at the moment - I just got it tonight so I haven't mentioned it to the boss yet. I share an office with him so I'll have a word tomorrow. I just wanted to see if anyone could catagorically say that this clause in the contract could not cause me any hassle if I left the company.

 

[RF Lighting]

We had a clause in our contracts at work prohibiting us from effectivly working for any other company or going solo within 20 miles of our yard.

As I live within 2 miles of work, as do most of our staff, we objected to this clause. The boss refuesd to remove it, so we all refused to sign them.