Hi,
I currently working for a IT consulting firm and I'm on the verge of getting an offer from one of my current employer's clients.
My employment contract has a cascading restraint clause (all the way down to 3 months and the state of Victoria) that prohibits me from seeking employment from any client or supplier. It also asserts that by accepting this contract I am acknowledging that the clause is reasonable and that my renumeration package compensates me for this.
My questions are:
a) Does it matter when my current employer did business with this customer? My current and prospective employer have a relationship but haven't done business for a few months. The contract is not at all specific about this.
b) The client approached me about this job - do I need to be careful about mentioning this? (ie. is it better or worse to be sought for a job instead of independently seeking it).
c) The offer would involve a change in role (away from consulting and into software engineering) and so I would struggle to see how my joining the customer would materially harm my employer (I couldn't and wouldn't steal clients as I would not be customer facing at all). How likely is the clause to be enforceable given this?
Thanks for your time.
I currently working for a IT consulting firm and I'm on the verge of getting an offer from one of my current employer's clients.
My employment contract has a cascading restraint clause (all the way down to 3 months and the state of Victoria) that prohibits me from seeking employment from any client or supplier. It also asserts that by accepting this contract I am acknowledging that the clause is reasonable and that my renumeration package compensates me for this.
My questions are:
a) Does it matter when my current employer did business with this customer? My current and prospective employer have a relationship but haven't done business for a few months. The contract is not at all specific about this.
b) The client approached me about this job - do I need to be careful about mentioning this? (ie. is it better or worse to be sought for a job instead of independently seeking it).
c) The offer would involve a change in role (away from consulting and into software engineering) and so I would struggle to see how my joining the customer would materially harm my employer (I couldn't and wouldn't steal clients as I would not be customer facing at all). How likely is the clause to be enforceable given this?
Thanks for your time.
