Agents has 12 month restrictive clause

[welcometomyworld]

Hello

"After termination of employment, the EMPLOYEE agrees that they will not take employment directly or indirectly with an external organization or a client with whom the EMPLOYEE worked through The COMPANY directly or indirectly for a period of Twelve months after termination of this contact." I have been working as a consultant and my agent has the above clause in the contract. I have not opted out of the government regulations and would appreciate any advice as to whether the clause is enforceable - Thank you.

[northernladuk]

Whats with all the restrictive clause questions all of a sudden?

I believe it is enforceable, 12 months might be a bit long but the question is will anyone bother. The difference between something being legally binding and anyone actually doing anything about it can be vast.

Unless you are blatently moving to a direct competitor or have a serious conflict of interests I can't see why a company would bother spending money on a legal team to stop you doing something that matters not to them

IMHO of course.

Interesting the contract uses the word EMPLOYEE. Does it stipulate somewhere else that this is directed to you as an employee of your ltd co or are they talking about employees of the company of which you are not therefore invalid?? Need more detail I think.

[BolshieBastard]

any unreasonable restrictive clause is likely to fail any legal test. PCG really should get off their fat arses and take this to court.

It should be an easy win for them but instead, they want to take on ir35 all the time.

[Pondlife]

Hello

"After termination of employment, the EMPLOYEE agrees that they will not take employment directly or indirectly with an external organization or a client with whom the EMPLOYEE worked through The COMPANY directly or indirectly for a period of Twelve months after termination of this contact." I have been working as a consultant and my agent has the above clause in the contract. I have not opted out of the government regulations and would appreciate any advice as to whether the clause is enforceable - Thank you.

Firstly I'd ask them where my holiday pay was and all other legally required benefits of employment.

2nd since you are covered by the Agency Regs the clause is bollox. I think the max restriction is either 12 weeks from contract start or 8 weeks from the end.

[TheFaQQer]

Is this a contract of permanent employment? If not, then I would get the words "EMPLOYEE" and "employment" replaced with something more appropriate.

I think 12 months is just about enforceable, but would ask them to change it to something more reasonable like 6 months. I can't see them pursuing you for it after 6 months or so, but you never know (and you might be one of a select few that are so sought after that they need this)

[TheFaQQer]

since you are covered by the Agency Regs the clause is bollox. I think the max restriction is either 12 weeks from contract start or 8 weeks from the end.

Good point - missed that!

Sign the thing and don't worry about it (but I'd still ask for a wording change!)

[tim123]

any unreasonable restrictive clause is likely to fail any legal test. PCG really should get off their fat arses and take this to court.

It should be an easy win for them but instead, .

No it wouldn't because each case has to be considered separately.

Winning one case will not set a precidence unless the facts of the case are identical.

And in any case, how often is this clause anything other than a theoretical problem for anyone?

tim

[Not So Wise]

* If you copy and pasted that would say contract was written by an armature (aka not a lawyer), so if rest of it is as bad whole thing is probably next to worthless
* If not opted out, 12 month clause is invalid
* And lastly, whole terminology of the paragraph is for a contract of employment, not provision of services, if it is meant to be the latter do not sign under any circumstances (unless you want to be IR35 caught and client wants to start paying employee benefits) if the former, wrong place to ask.

[FarmerPalmer]

"EMPLOYEE worked through The COMPANY"

Who signs the contract ?

The director of the company ?

or an employee of the company ?

surely the contract is with the company and not an employee ?

If these is a right to substitution (as I hope there would be) then surely this is inappropriate in this context.

[Ardesco]

I doubt twelve months would stand up in court, I think 6 months is the realistic maximum. But as others have said you are opted in therefore they cannot legally give you a handcuff clause so it is null and void.

You could try tellng the agent but he/she won't understand and will swear blind it is legally enforcible....