Employment contract clause competition
December 9, 2009 | 20,00 EUR | answered by Dr. Dr. Danjel-Philippe Newerla
Hello, I am currently working for company A (service provider), which works with various companies including company B. I am providing a service for company B through company A.
Company B would like to hire me as a permanent employee in 2010. I signed an employment contract with company A on December 14, 2006, which includes a non-competition clause.
It states: The employee is prohibited from working for a customer of company A for 2 years.
This means I am not allowed to work for company B. What can I do? What if I take this to court? Is there now a right to freedom of choice in choosing where to work? I am young and unfortunately I have never had this problem before. Please help me.
Thank you, kind regards, Maria-Elisa Curulli
Dear Seeker,
Thank you for your inquiry!
Below, I would like to take a stance on your question considering the facts you have provided:
Fundamentally, you are absolutely right and there is a right to choose your place of work freely.
However, it is recognized in labor court jurisprudence that a non-compete clause can be effective under certain conditions.
The first condition is that the non-compete clause does not exceed two years, which is the case for you. The other condition is that you receive compensation for it, a monetary payment.
Unfortunately, I cannot see from your description whether you receive compensation for the non-compete clause. If you do not receive compensation, this clause is generally invalid and you are not obligated to adhere to it.
If the matter were to go to court, ultimately it would depend on whether this non-compete clause is valid or invalid, which, as already explained, will depend on the question of compensation in your case.
Below, I have attached a very informative link on this topic, from which you can gather all the relevant information for your case regarding the validity of the non-compete clause:
http://www.finanztip.de/recht/arbeitsrecht/wettbew02.htm
I hope my explanation has helped you. If you have any further questions, please feel free to reach out.
I wish you a pleasant Wednesday afternoon and all the best!
Kind regards,
Dipl.-Jur. Danjel-Philippe Newerla, Attorney at Law
Heilsbergerstr. 16
27580 Bremerhaven
kanzlei.newerla@web.de
Tel. 0471/3088132
Fax. 0471/57774
