If an employee breaches a non-compete clause, you may have grounds for taking them to court. A court could oblige them to stop breaching the term, and you may also be able to have your legal costs covered.
Non-compete clauses play a significant role in protecting businesses in the United Kingdom, both in employment relationships and M&A transactions. While these clauses are generally enforceable, they must meet the test of reasonableness and be designed to protect legitimate business interests.
If you don't have a written contract, you can take any job whether it's with a competitor or not. But if there is a written one and it contains 'restrictive covenants', your employer could stop you from working for a competitor for a set period of time.
How To Legally Get Out of a Non-Compete Agreement Get a New Job That Doesn't Involve Competitive Activities. Prove That Your Former Employer Breached the Contract. Argue That the Non-Compete Provision Isn't Enforceable. Show That Your Previous Employer Has No Legitimate Business Interests.
Non-Competitive Activity at New Employer: One of the most straightforward ways to overcome a noncompete is by ensuring that your new role with a different employer is in a non-competitive capacity. If you're not engaging in activities that directly compete with your former employer's business, you may be in the clear.
Negotiating with your old employer. You might be able to persuade your old employer to ignore a restriction, or at least make it shorter. To make you follow it they'd need to go to court to prove the restriction is reasonable. This is time-consuming and can be expensive, so they might prefer to compromise.
If you can demonstrate that the clause is too stringent with regards to the restriction of location and time, or it's more than necessary to protect the legitimate business interest, then the clause may well be found to be unreasonable and therefore will not stand.
Negotiating with your new employer If your old employer won't compromise, you could also ask your new employer if they can give you a different job until the restriction you agreed to runs out. This could be either a different kind of job or a different location - that way you won't be breaking the restriction.
In certain circumstances, it is possible to find non-compete contract loopholes that may void the contract. For example, if you can prove that you never signed the contract, or if you can prove the contract is against the public interest, you may be able to void the agreement.