Some advice please :)

wooters

I am thinking of leaving the company I work for as I have been offered a job with better pay but noticed in my contract the follow:

(d) ​Competing employment
!
Unless with the written consent of the directors, which will not be unreasonably withheld by the Company, you will not, during your employment or for a period of 12 months after termination of your employment, either alone or in association with any person, firm or company, directly or indirectly be engaged, concerned, or interested in the business of Computer Maintenance within a radius of 25 miles of the office of the Company.


How would this effect me? Could this stop me having the new job?

Thanks in advance

scheming_gypsy

depends what the job is and if it's within 25 miles of your current one.

Sounds as though they're trying to stop you poching their customers, although I wouldn't expect to see it in a computer engineers contract.

Jarndyce

Restricted covenants (which is what this is) are enforceable only in so far as they protect the legitimate business interests of the employer. Simply trying to stifle competition would not fall into that category. Poaching their list of clients certainly would. I also think that 12 months is too long - 3 months is generally seen as reasonable providing the other criteria are met.

heretolearn_2

I would ignore it. These are frequently challenged and the employer has to prove they are reasonable. This one, which basically forbids you from leaving them unless you relocate, is not reasonable at all IMO. It's reasonable for them to say you mustn't take clients with you, or can't work on a client account if your new company wins it within a certain time, but the 1 year and 25 miles are OTT, especially if you are not involved in winning clients but just a technical bod. It essentially makes no difference/loss to your employer if you just move to a new firm.

SarEl

Hmmm - to play devils advocate (because I do not intrinsically disagree with the previous advice - but you have to remember it is advice) depending on your job, and given the very strict geographical limit, it could be possible to argue such a covenent is enforceable. I tend towards agreeing that more than 3-6 months is a long time and therefore probably wouldn't be - but the only test of this is if the employer decided to take you to court! So anything we say would have to be broadly advice - nobody could give you a definitive answer. Do you have any sense of whether the employer would try to enforce it?