Thread: Employment Help!!!

Hi all

Hopefully someone can give me some advice

I was working for my old company from Jul 2006 until May 2008 i then left after working my contract, full 12 weeks notice and received my p45 etc., I then rejoined under a different role 7 weeks later. On this appointment i was only ever given a letter of offer which contained the main terms of my contract and said full terms would follow.

throughout 2008 i asked for a contract, I also asked in Jan 09 for a contract that i never received.

In June 09 i decided to leave - told my employer i believed to have no contract so would give the stat 1 week notice. On the Friday that my one week ended i had 2 very uncomfortable meetings with my line manager who advised that becuase the offer letter said 12 weeks i was bound. the debate was heated on his part including threats of an injunction, blackmail and a questions regarding my supposed malevolence. the company and the employment was always highly pressured including regualar 16 hour days and beng on call 7 days a week etc and I was always open to working a longer term of notice but this meeting was the cherry

I left on that friday giving the reason that i believed that the trust and confidence and trust between myself and my employer had been obliterated and couldnt be restored. I claimed to rely upon the offer letter and no contract being provided and therefore gave a week.

I also asked for a copy of the grievance procedure including details of monies owing

this email was acknowledged however 2 days later i receieved a recorded letter claiming I was AWOL and wanted me to contact the office to arrange coming back to work. failure to do so and they would commence legal action.

I then 3 days after this received a letter from their solicitors advising they accepted the termination of my employment even though they believed it to be a breach

....now the tricky part

within this letter they claimed that my new employer and them had an NDA signed which restricts any employment, offer of employment, contract of services and non solicitation of staff.

this turns out to be correct and now my new employer has received a letter threatening to sue them for breach of NDA unless they "remedy" the situation - ie fire me

on top of this today should have been my payday with 3 weeks pay and owed holiday monies and nothing has been received

i really am stuck - is there anything i can do???

thanks in advance

On the basics of this I'd reply threatening to sue for non payment of salary and restriction of trade. I don't think on what I know that they can enforce this as it fly's in the face of "the free market"

There is case law on this.

Unless you are some sort of high flying boffin with the countries nuclear secrets or had access to some new major worldwide breakthrough which would turnaround the economy then I really don't think you have much to worry about an NDA. Having said that, if you were, then you probably wouldn't be here asking the question.

Most lawyers letters are full of the old cow dung, threatening this and that but the reality is that is where they make their money. When it comes to the nitty gritty they soon back off.