Leaving work for a competitor

G

Gabriel

Registered User
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Hypothetical Question:

Does anyone know the legal implications (in reality) of leaving ones employment to go to a company which would be considered a competitor where ones contract of employment stipulates you cannot go to a competitor within x months of leaving?

From here:
http://www.citizensinformation.ie/c...ontracts-of-employment/contract_of_employment


So it would appear to an issue of contract law as opposed to employment law.

I am hoping that some legal experts might be able to shed light on the reality of the situation in Ireland and if there have been cases already through the Irish courts.

Thanks.
 
My husband did the same thing over 1 year ago, the old company did get a solicitor to write to him telling him he will end up in court if he didn't stop working asap and was not allowed to work in direct competition for something like 6 months. He showed this to his new job and they got the company solicitor to write back, the solicitor told him that contracts stating things like that are not worth the paper they are written on. Its now over 1 year and we have not heard a thing.

I don't know for 100% if the contract is not legally binding or not but he seemed to be ok!

Good luck.
 
Some interesting cases in first link:

[broken link removed]
[broken link removed]
 
if contract states it directly then it is usually binding. peter mark appearantly used to have such a clause to ensure their employees aren't running off when the next best offer came along.
if it goes to court however, the judge will look at how reasonable it is for the current/ old employer to state such thing in a contract. if it's for the sake of keeping your employees one way or the other, than surely judge will rule against this contract clause. however, if you worked in a position where you dealt with very sensitive company information etc. than chances are, the judge rules in favour for the company. it really depends on what job we're talking about.

the cleaning lady in company x can work a month later in company y.
the software developer on the other hand....
 
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