clause in employment contract...

[LuckyStrike]

My contract for employment at my current job says i cannot go and work for any company within 25miles that does the same line of business as im currently in...of course i have signed and agreed to this contract.

I have now found a couple of jobs that i am interested in...

how enforceable would something like this in my contract be if they wanted to be arsey about it?

[Daibach]

I have a similar clause in my contract... not sure how enforcable it is though

[Kermit]

It would be enforceable, providing that the contract specified exactly which companies were banned, and that the restrictions were not unduly onerous.

For instance it would not be enforcable for Asda to prevent their cashiers moving to Tesco, as that is unduly onerous, but it would be enforcable for staff with access to important business documents to be barred from working for rivals.

[LuckyStrike]

it would be to a company that acutally supplies us sometimes, but are also technically a competitor. Our contracts dont specify companies that we could not work for certain companies, just within the same business field.

i cant imagine them being arsed to persue it, was just wondering.

[Man Of Kent]

What about restraint of trade?

[Kermit]

What about restraint of trade?

Clauses specifically preventing working for competitors in a narrowly defined field are valid, particularly if the employee is privy to trade secrets.

Wide clauses are not valid though- as I say, Tesco couldn't prevent its till monkeys from working in the retail sector, for instance.

[Man Of Kent]

I understand that I could not hold a job in, say, Asda and Tesco at the same time and I am sure that contracts cover that (most include a "you must inform" clause when second jobs are approached) but I didn't realise that they could have an exclusion on you after you'd left a job...

Are they usually time limited?