Radius clause advice

SalonGeek

Help Support SalonGeek:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Sarahdevitto

New Member
Joined
Nov 29, 2020
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Location
Wakefield
Hi, I was just wondering if anyone can help. So I have an opportunity at a new salon however by walking its 0.4miles but driving is 0.7miles. In my contract it states I cannot work within 0.5miles. Does anyone no of the measure in walking or driving distance?

Thanks
 
Can you post the exact wording of the clause in full as many are poorly drafted and will not stand up to scrutiny and so you could be worrying about nothing.
 
Can you post the exact wording of the clause in full as many are poorly drafted and will not stand up to scrutiny and so you could be worrying about nothing.

During your employment and for a period of six months following the termination of your employment you shall not whether as an employer, consultant, freelance contractor, agent or manager, whether on behalf of a third party or for your own account, carryout for payment or reward the craft or job role for whuch you were employed by the employer within half a mile radius of the place of employment specified in this contract or within half a mile radius of any place of business at which you habitually worked within six months of the termination of your employment except on behalf of the employer.
 
I very much doubt that a court will enforce such a poorly written woolly clause. However, its always worth contacting a solicitor specialising in employment law, for further advice.

Restrictive clauses are normally used to stop employees taking sensitive business information to a competitor brand.
In recent years, the courts have made it clear that for any restriction to be enforceable, it must be reasonable, of limited duration and to protect specific legitimate business interests. They cannot be used solely to prevent an ordinary employee from making a living.

1. Is the restrictive covenant reasonable?
In the eyes of the law, the restrictive covenant must not be any more restrictive on the employee than is reasonably necessary to protect the employer’s business. For example, if a clause seeks to restrict your dealing with “all clients”, this will often be seen to be too broad and ultimately unrealistic and unenforceable.

2. Protect legitimate business interests.
This is where many clauses fail. Providing you do not take any client data with you when you leave, or specifically target their clients, it will be very difficult for them to prove this point. After all, all hairdressing clients are free to choose where to get their hair done and by whom.
 
It is normally 'as the crow flies' in these situations.
 
In the USA, ‘non-compete’ agreements are largely unenforceable for the beauty industry.

However, if one worked for a chemical company as a scientist or engineer for a large company, and had special knowledge of ‘trade secrets’ for instance, then an agreement would likely be enforceable.

Asking an employee to not be able to make a living in a certain area for a length of time is intimidating and downright nasty, IMO.

Personally, I always let the client information be general knowledge in our salons. We kept everything on computer and everyone had access. We had very little turnover, but, if someone wanted to call clients to let them know of a change in location, fine. And, if a client called and asked for someone who had moved on, then, yes, we would give the new phone number.
 
Your contract wording is very similar to the one I use, however I refer specifically to competing businesses. As I’m a salon and surrounded by businesses that are not like mine - either Spas, niche beauty:brow bars, nail bars etc, my competition are basically the one of two businesses who use the same brands. These businesses would benefit if they had a ready trained employee that I paid ££££’s to train.

I go through contracts with my Team every year so that they understand what is and is not ok and we agree what is fair. However, some years ago I let a therapist go, very discreetly, suggesting that she find herself another job before I fired her for poor performance. She left to work in a non competing business, only to sneak off and join the competition 6 weeks later, and we then had clients no show which suggested that she’d contacted them using stolen data. She sent texts to my staff saying “that there was nothing I could do”. It was very upsetting.

Even though she was legally in the wrong, I couldn’t really do very much. I didn’t want to get involved suing her for her training costs, which only left me with the option of taking out a Court Injunction against her employer, which would cost about £6k. As I hadn’t suffered nearly enough financial loss to make that a sensible thing to do I had a solicitor write some unpleasant letters and left it at that. I received some solicitor’s letters back and had the consolation of knowing that it cost her Daddy a lot of money.

My solicitor specifically said that I couldn’t ban her from earning a living. I sent him a list of all the businesses that I would have had no issue with her working for that were walking distance from her home and a list of those that I considered were competition and he agreed that this was fair and binding.

I then had another girl leave and lie about where she went. I eventually discovered that she has also joined the competition, but I definitely hadn’t lost any business. I let it go.

So speaking as an employer, with insurance and legally binding contracts, I’d say go for it! As long as you don’t do anything illegal like steal client data, don’t try and poach clients or staff during working hours or use information that you only have through your employment and don’t break any other terms of your contract, you’ll be fine.

depending on your relationship with your Boss you might want to be upfront with them about what you are doing,
 

Latest posts

Back
Top