Question: Employees don’t have to sign their contracts of employment, do they?
Answer: If you want any restrictions to bite, then yes they do. In a very recent case we are reminded that if you have included clauses in the contract that stop the employee setting up in competition to your business or taking your clients, it needs to be signed. In the case in question, the employee moved jobs from low level operations to the Operations Director over 3 job moves. She signed one contract for the first job but as she moved up through the hierarchy, the employer didn’t chase up signed copies of her contract. She then left to work for a rival.
The Court decided that as the last contracts could not be found and the first contract had not been signed, the employer could not rely on them. The employee was therefore able to poach the clients from her previous employer.
We are reminded that:
1. Contracts of employment must be signed for some clauses to bite;
2. Each time the employee moved job she wasn’t offered any extra money to take on the extra covenants which means they are unenforceable; and
3. The same covenants were not in other senior employee’s contracts – keep covenants consistent!
#teamsekoya #employment #bettertobesafethansorry
