Problem with contract!!!

[gemmima1]

I have been working in a salon for nearly 4 years now and feel it is time to move on. But when I started there I signed a contract. It stated that if I leave ther I can't work within an 8 mile radius fo 6 months. Does this sound normal? Im not after pinching all there business but a few clients have said that if I ever left they wouldn't go to anyone else at the salon and wan't to follow me. what should I do? I'm worried that I will loose my existing regular clients if Im out of the scene for 6 months.....:grr:

 

[Noodle]

Try contacting your local branch of the C.A.B. (Citizens Advice Bureau) ... they may able to advise you.

 

[Vanessa]

ACAS has help lines and a website with links to other employment help lines etc, it is for employees and employers.

 

[lisa lou]

it stands believe me , i have just had to pay soliciters costs of 2k to my old employers so they didn't take me to court over the matter, to all geeks out there please read your contracts very carefully xxxxxxxxxxx:hug:

 

[Ruth Mills]

Grr, that's tantamount to legalised slavery if you ask me!

OK, I have had similar clauses in employment contracts with permanent IT jobs - but that was that you couldn't work with a customer of the company you were working for for 6 months - which is fair enough, as if you're running a business, you wouldn't want to lose one of your staff to one of your clients.

But to put a geographical limitation on where you work seems incredibly fascist if you ask me. Does it only apply to work of a similar nature, or would they sue you if you got a job on the checkouts of the Tesco store just down the road for example???

I hope you find a clever solicitor who can find a hole in that contract and brand it as unfair, leaving your employers no leg to stand on!!!

 

[FlawlessBeauty]

8 miles is quite severe! I've heard there are loopholes but i agree, go to your local citizens advice bureau. They're free and they can help.

Good Luck xxx

 

[persianista]

The average radius clause on a contract is 1/2 a mile for 6 months unless you are selling a business. Whether even that is enforceable is debatable. The 8 mile clause on your contract would be deemed a restraint of trade.
Please consider carefully before you nick clients from your employer. theft is theft and at some point you may need a reference. If you want to move on, please just do that.
Most salon owners know each other and anyone that doesn't play by the rules can easily get a bad name.x

 

[Bagpuss]

I always understood it to be that the clients are the salons...not the tech working on them...although you cant stop anyone leaving the salon and coming to you it would be wrong to encourage it or take any clients details from the salon.

 

[angelina221]

The clients may be going to the same salon all the time but ultimately clients are loyal to the stylist and not the salon.
Most people stick to the same hairdresser for years and if they move, the client follows them.
Had a similar situation in our town.
A stylist had signed a contract saying she musn't work within a 5 mile radius if she ever left for 6 months i think it was.
She left, got a job at a hairdressers round the corner. Her former employer took her to court and lost!
The law will take each case on it's own merits and will balance the interests of the employer with protecting the rights of the employee to earn a living.
I think an 8 mile radius would be deemed as a bit extreme!

 

[PolishedAussie]

Hey,
I would go and seek legal advice. I know that it has gone on here in Australia where the salon trys to restrict trade within an area within a period of time, but it doesn't hold up. It cost one of my friends $1000 of legal fees to fight similar agreement. She won, but with significantly less money in her pocket. Either way though it will probably end up costing you money though. :cry:
Personally I think that employers shouldn't be putting things into contracts that are not legally binding.

 

[angelina221]

It's because clients are loyal to stylists that a lot of employers put this clause in a contract.
If you open a salon and take on a stylist, maybe pay for them to do some advanced courses, then you don't want them opening their own salon or working at a salon down the road. You also don't want them taking any information that is business sensitive.
As i said before, i think 8 miles is a bit extreme but i can see why employers have this clause put into contracts.

 

[Ruth Mills]

It's because clients are loyal to stylists that a lot of employers put this clause in a contract.
If you open a salon and take on a stylist, maybe pay for them to do some advanced courses, then you don't want them opening their own salon or working at a salon down the road. You also don't want them taking any information that is business sensitive.
As i said before, i think 8 miles is a bit extreme but i can see why employers have this clause put into contracts.

I read another thread where a lady said that a 10 mile radius was pretty standard. I guess I stand corrected then with regards to my earlier comment, where I sounded somewhat outraged at the concept of not being allowed to work within a certain distance of one's ex-employer.

 

[angelina221]

10 miles is a wide area and is not the norm.
It all depends on where you work. If you are working say in London then a 5 mile exclusion would seriously impair someones ability to find work elsewhere and this would not stand up in court.
If an area is deemed too wide then a court can delete that bit of the contract. Courts cannot add to or amend details in a contract but it can delete. If the contract still makes sense after deletion then the contract will stand.

 

[gemmima1]

thank you so much everyone for your help. the next step is to definatly get legal advice. I know that clients say they'll stay loyal and then a lot don't. I don't want to piss my soon to be ex boss (i hope!!!) off, i think i would just hand in my notice and if they find out where I am then it's of their own accord. I think the 8 miles means in the beauty industry not just any job, but i wouldn't want to stop doing beauty for 6 months..... have to be very careful who you tell things to as it was said everyone knows everyone!!!!:grr:

gem x x x

 

[YSL]

I can genuinely say that the salons we have represented have struggled to enforce anything beyond 1 mile dependent on location. Our firm is in Guildford, albeit we work nationally, and there are a lot of salons here- in our locality a more realistic restriction would be 1/2 mile.

Avoid soliciting clients or other staff for the duration of the restriction but, frankly, I would feel relatively safe taking a position within the 8 mile band.