Hi,
I'm employed as a Senior Manager in a Research firm in India and my employment contract stipulates I cannot join a competitor for a certain period.
Issues:
1. Is this clause legally enforceable - if yes, under what circumstances.
2. The company did not give me any training - on the other hand, its my skills which gave my department a sound footing in its domain and a had a great impact on sales.
Since no skill were imparted by the company to me for disbursing my duties - hence its my intrinsic skill and its my prerogative to whom I offer it - will this logic stand valid under Indian laws - labor or civil or criminal?
3. If I seriously want to join a competitor - what are the legal options?
Would appreciate some help on this.
Thanks in advance.
From India, Mumbai
I'm employed as a Senior Manager in a Research firm in India and my employment contract stipulates I cannot join a competitor for a certain period.
Issues:
1. Is this clause legally enforceable - if yes, under what circumstances.
2. The company did not give me any training - on the other hand, its my skills which gave my department a sound footing in its domain and a had a great impact on sales.
Since no skill were imparted by the company to me for disbursing my duties - hence its my intrinsic skill and its my prerogative to whom I offer it - will this logic stand valid under Indian laws - labor or civil or criminal?
3. If I seriously want to join a competitor - what are the legal options?
Would appreciate some help on this.
Thanks in advance.
From India, Mumbai
Hello,
Going by the tone & tenor of your posting, I get a feeling that you either are working OR worked abroad.
If yes, I guess you must have been already exposed to something called "Non-compete Agreement", especially for senior management executives. This is now getting prevalent in India too, given that the IPR regime is becoming more common.
TO the extent I know of, this is legally tenable & enforceable--as long as the timeframe is clearly specified & the terms are equally applicable on BOTH sides [Employer & Employee]. Suggest wait for other members to respond too.
However, I am not sure of your point reg training--how is this related to your main issue? Pl note that you are NOT referring to any Service Bond--which is linked to any training/skills imparted or not.
Non-Compete is linked to more of the trade secrets & company-confidential info that the employee is expected to be exposed to during the tenure of employment, which IF shared with competitors COULD/WOULD be detrimental to this company's interests.
And just as you brought some skills to this company from earlier employment(s), so too would this company expect you to carry additional skills when you leave...hence the effort to protect their interests. And also, in the current global scenario, "Skills" are getting to be more intellectual--could be problem-solving skills, skills leading to New Products development, soft-skills, etc--than some sort of specific training.
Hope you get the point.
Rgds,
TS
From India, Hyderabad
1637Going by the tone & tenor of your posting, I get a feeling that you either are working OR worked abroad.
If yes, I guess you must have been already exposed to something called "Non-compete Agreement", especially for senior management executives. This is now getting prevalent in India too, given that the IPR regime is becoming more common.
TO the extent I know of, this is legally tenable & enforceable--as long as the timeframe is clearly specified & the terms are equally applicable on BOTH sides [Employer & Employee]. Suggest wait for other members to respond too.
However, I am not sure of your point reg training--how is this related to your main issue? Pl note that you are NOT referring to any Service Bond--which is linked to any training/skills imparted or not.
Non-Compete is linked to more of the trade secrets & company-confidential info that the employee is expected to be exposed to during the tenure of employment, which IF shared with competitors COULD/WOULD be detrimental to this company's interests.
And just as you brought some skills to this company from earlier employment(s), so too would this company expect you to carry additional skills when you leave...hence the effort to protect their interests. And also, in the current global scenario, "Skills" are getting to be more intellectual--could be problem-solving skills, skills leading to New Products development, soft-skills, etc--than some sort of specific training.
Hope you get the point.
Rgds,
TS
From India, Hyderabad
Endless discussion!! I remember an instance when an employee came to me with same query. For him the issue was that if his experience & skills are specific to that domain, it is for sure that he would join a company in the same domain only !!
This has been a common issue in the industry across - specially IT. IT sector involves lot of tricks of trade, secretarial formula & confidential data & same set of customer base. In this fast moving economy it is difficult to survive if the same is misused at competitor's place. For securing its interest, any company would not want it's employee to join a direct competitor.
But from your query I too was not able to judge the reason for you to mention the training / skills not gained from your current employer. Being a Sr. Manager it is quite obvious that your contribution is expected - you are paid for that. But while being an employee you would have come across several things which can be termed as CONFIDENTIAL. That is where the clause comes in place.
From India, Ahmedabad
This has been a common issue in the industry across - specially IT. IT sector involves lot of tricks of trade, secretarial formula & confidential data & same set of customer base. In this fast moving economy it is difficult to survive if the same is misused at competitor's place. For securing its interest, any company would not want it's employee to join a direct competitor.
But from your query I too was not able to judge the reason for you to mention the training / skills not gained from your current employer. Being a Sr. Manager it is quite obvious that your contribution is expected - you are paid for that. But while being an employee you would have come across several things which can be termed as CONFIDENTIAL. That is where the clause comes in place.
From India, Ahmedabad
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