NSW Advice and opinion required - changing jobs and should there be any legal aspect

[Adam1user]

Hi All,

I am a chartered accountant in an chartered account firm. With time, I want to move out of that field. I appreciate advice/ comments and any feedback on legal aspect in NSW for the following:
I like to move out from my audit firm (no negative actions or dealings with my chartered firm - all OK) to one of my clients, I want to contact the CFO of one of the clients to ask for a position with that client to work in that client, also a key point is to ask the CFO to keep it discreet from my bosses. The advice or comments: would you recommend this action?

From a legal point of view, I don't have any clause in my contract about this, but is there any law or regulation in NSW labour laws? to prevent me from working moving from the chartered firm to my client etc....
Much appreciated for your comments and feedback.

 

[Rod]

Have a look at what is in your contract. There may be a clause about moving to clients.

 

[Adam1user]

Mate, I already did this, it is in bold.

Hi All,

I am a chartered accountant in an chartered account firm. With time, I want to move out of that field. I appreciate advice/ comments and any feedback on legal aspect in NSW for the following:
I like to move out from my audit firm (no negative actions or dealings with my chartered firm - all OK) to one of my clients, I want to contact the CFO of one of the clients to ask for a position with that client to work in that client, also a key point is to ask the CFO to keep it discreet from my bosses. The advice or comments: would you recommend this action?

From a legal point of view, I don't have any clause in my contract about this, but is there any law or regulation in NSW labour laws? to prevent me from working moving from the chartered firm to my client etc....
Much appreciated for your comments and feedback.

 

[Rod]

You are entitled to look for better work, but while you remain employed you must not let your job search cut across your duty of fidelity to your current firm. In practice, this means you can apply for roles and have discussions in your own time, but you should avoid quietly approaching a key client’s CFO for a job and asking them to keep it from your bosses, because that creates an undisclosed conflict and risks being seen as undermining an important client relationship. A safer course is to either wait until you have resigned (or at least flagged your intention to move on) before raising employment with that client.