Restraint of trade – Effective or not?
Restraint of trade clauses are one of my favourite bugbears. Commonly found in employment agreements. I review a few of these both for employers and employees and most (if not all) would be in part or in full, void, and only seem to exist to scare (ex) employees into not working for the opposition. Leaving […]
Casual Employee – some new guidance
The High Court of Australia in a case called Workpac Pty Ltd v Rossato and Ors. (“Rosso”) has recently clarified what is a “casual employee”. Mr Rossato was employed as a production worker by the labour-hire company (“WorkPac”) under a series of six contracts, or “assignments”, to perform work for one of WorkPac’s clients. At […]
Confidentiality and Employment – what can I protect?
Introduction It is not uncommon to find confidentiality clauses in employment agreements that aim to protect the enterprise from misuse or theft of Confidential Information including Trade Secrets. The question is how effective these are. What is Confidential Information in Australian Law? Confidential Information (‘CI’) is largely a creature of contract or equity. We do […]
