An employment contract may include terms preventing an employee from doing certain things after their employment ends.
Typical clauses will seek to prevent an employee:
- working for a competitor;
- soliciting clients; or
- poaching employees.
It is vitally important that employees who are considering setting up business in competition with their employer or joining a competitor, seek advice at the earliest opportunity. This is a complex area of law and employees who get things wrong, may face costly High Court proceedings.
Even where a contract of employment does not contain post termination restrictions, injunctions may still be granted where the employee has acted to the employer’s detriment during their employment, for example by copying confidential information or by conspiring with colleagues to start a competing business.
