need some i dont know how to describe this in a title its a wierd one

[reggyperin]

hi,

 

Today my directors where i work asked me into the office to discuss a website i had set up, I am sure they were going to fire me until they heard my side of the story, basically over the last few months things havent been great where i work and the directors have been talking about getting rid of a few people to make ends meet so i set up a website as a backup just incase.

 

I found myself a supplier and set it up with some products and left it at that and have never sold anything.

 

i have obviously been playing with the website whilst its online more because i am in this line of business with my current job and the shopping carts are so different so i have been using it as a learning tool on an evening adding snippets of code and the likes.

 

now a supplier i had set myself up with has recently became a supplier to the company i work for and they have told my directors about my account with them and my website which was laying dormant but "live".

I have never made a sale through this website and my contract does state that i am not allowed to run a business whilst working for them however since i have not made a sale i am technically not in breach of my contract.

 

One of the directors appears to want to keep me on board after listening to my side of the story whilst the other one does not.

 

I have obviously been very stupid but where do i stand - at the moment i have been told to come to work on monday - and they will see how it goes but i feel i may have burnt a bridge with this other director and working life may not be as it was before any help would be appreciated and infact dreading the prospect of walking into the office.

 

I am annoyed that the general manager at my "suppliers" have done this, i was under the impression they are not allowed to divulge this type of information to other people especially an employer who they knew i worked for.

 

any advice would be fantastic

 

many thanks

[reggyperin]

anyone pop some advice my way?

[teaboy2]

First of all, you have nothing to worry about. they can not sack you and even if you had made a sale you would not have been in breach of your contract. Also if they were to sack you theyd be in fact committing and act of unfair dismissal as you have not breached your contract. details as to why your not in breach of contract are included below.

 

Your supplier had infact committed an criminal offence in accordance to the data protection act and the infromation act. In other words they were acting illegally by giving such information to your bosses without your written consent. you should make an official compalint to them and inform them that you withhold the right to take legal action without futhur notice and to report them to the OFT, Trading standards and the Information comminsioners office, and that they will be liable to pay a substantial fine or face a significant jail sentence as a result of any action/legal action taken by the mentioned bodies. you may also wish to seek damages from them in the form of a goodwill gesture or by taking them to the small claims court if you prefer.

 

With regards to your employment contract stating you can not have a business while working for your employer. well since you are not reigistered as any company/sole proprietor in relation to your website, then legally your website is simply nothing more the a personal venture and therefore not a business venture. I.e your bosses calling your website a buisness when your not registered as a company or soler proprietor would be the same as saying everyone selling on ebay is running a business, when they are not!

so, so long as you hadnt registered your website as a business or yourself as a company/sole proprietor, then you have not been running your own business and therefore not in breach of contract. your website is therefore nothing more then a personal venture with the aim or making a little extra income on top of your full time wage, and in your personal time.

 

You can take this advice in the knowlegde that i myself am a sole proprietor of a company that supplies printer consumables and stationary to goverment funded bodies via my sales team, private and public businesses via my sales team and to general public via a website (currently undergoing reconstruction to include our complete product range). So basically, i am in a similar line of work as you and your bosses. i would be very interested in hearing more about your work and personal venture aswell, so feel free to pm if you like.

Edited October 16, 2009 by teaboy2

[reggyperin]

i have actually been classed as self employed since before i started work with this company ( i used to sell a bit on ebay ) would this make a difference?

[teaboy2]

not at all self employed is different to having a buisness. in order to have a buisness you need to have register the company at company house and informed the revenue, or you need to have registered at the revenue as a sole trader/prorietor. being self employed simply means you can work for others without having an actual employer. i.e work for others without having to be on their books and as result liable to paying own tax and insurance. thats all.

 

so in other words all self employed means is that you can work for yourself without the need of a business and work for others without the need of having full time employment contracts etc. infact you could sell things left right and centre from your website without the need of having a business and they'd be nothing your employer can do to stop you. same applies to selling on ebay.

Edited October 17, 2009 by teaboy2

[teaboy2]

print of a copy of this letter and hand it to your bosses on monday morning first thing before and tell them to read it before they make any comment with regards to your employment or action they intend to take.

 

Dir Sir/Madam

 

With regards to our dicussion on friday with regards to my actions of setting up a website in my own personal time as my own personal venture. i hereby inform you such discussion was a breach of employment law, as it was infact a disciplinary hearing in which you had failed to give me prior notice of or advise me of my legal rights to have a person of my choice attend the meeting with me weather union representative, friend, colleage or solicitor. You also made clear that a decision about my furture employment with the company would be made today (monday). i am therefore of the believe that you intend to inform me weather i have been dismissed or not. Such dismissal would be a breach of employment laws and a breach of my contract with the company, as you will have clearly not followed the correct disciplinary procedures as set out and governed by employment law. therefore any dismissal would be unlawfull and i will take the matter up with an employment tribunal.

 

With regards to your comments as to myself being in breach of contract as a result of setting up a website, you are infact incorrect. It clearly states in my employment contract that i can not run a business whilst working for the company. however i am not running a business, i have not registered as a buiness or as a sole prorietor, therefore the website is nothing more then a personal venture set up in my own time, and not that of a business venture. To call it a business when it and/or i am not registered as such would be the same as saying "everyone that uses ebay to sell things, is running a business". would you say i was running a business if i was a stall holder at a car boot sale? no probably not! as i do not need to have a buisness or be registered as one to sell products as a personal venture to suppliement my income.

 

I also point out that the supplier who informed you of my website and my account with them had infact committed a criminal act. as they were in breach of the Data Protection Act and the information Act as they did not have my permission to share such information or data with 3rd parties such as yourself's. and i will be dealing with them though appropriate legal channels. therefore any action taken by you as a result of such information being given to you would also mean you are acting unlawfully, as you woud be using information or property obtained as a result of a criminal act to your own benefit. I will therefore take the appropriate legal action required if you are to continue your current course of action.

 

I therefore given all the above, suggest that before you make any discision that you should consider the consequences of any action you take against me. if you see the error of your actions, then i request a formal apology and that all notes regarding this matter be removed from my employment file.i also request that all information obtained as a result of the said suppliers criminal act be destoryed. i also inform you yourselfs are subject to the Data protection act and the imformation act and therefore must not disclose the imformation obatined to anyone without my permission doing so would be an criminal act.

 

Note this letter is not in anyway to be assumed to be a threat it is simply to make you aware of your legal responsibilities and my legal position in the event that you fail to respect your legal responsabilities

 

Yours Sincerely

 

Joe Bloggs

 

 

feel free to edit the letter if you wish but thats the basic jest of what you should make clear to them. Also my spelling and grammer is pretty bad so make sure you correct that to lol. note they have to give u at least 24hrs notice before taking u into the office to discuss this. they can not just drag you of the shop floor and stun u with it like they have. athey should have simply told you in writing about their concerns and invited you to attend a formal meeting for it.

 

Also if you would like to savlage whats left of your working relationship with them then i suggest you infrom then that this is nothing personal against them its just business and that you hope they can understand/accept that.

Edited October 17, 2009 by teaboy2

[reggyperin]

thank you for the letter, i have obviously discussed this with my partner over the last day and it has been decided to take the gamble and try and run with starting to turn it into a business - but obviously i will not be allowed to work for my present employer so how do i handle the situation now?

 

do i hand my notice in monday/tuesday before they have a chance to dismiss me do i have to work my calendar month notice period?

can i still re-activate the website and not worry about being in breach?

[Stornoway]

 

Dear Sir/Madam

 

With regards to our dicussion on friday in relation to my actions of setting up a website in my own personal time as my own personal venture. i hereby inform you that such discussion was a breach of employment law, as it was infact a disciplinary hearing in which you had failed to give me prior notice of or advise me of my legal rights to have a person of my choice attend the meeting with me (whether union representative, friend, colleage or solicitor). You also made clear that a decision about my future employment with the company would be made today (monday). i am therefore of the belief that you intend to inform me whether i have been dismissed or not. Such dismissal would be a breach of employment laws and a breach of my contract with the company, as you will have clearly not followed the correct disciplinary procedures as set out and governed by employment law. therefore any dismissal would be unlawful and i will take the matter up with an employment tribunal.

 

With regards to your comments as to myself being in breach of contract as a result of setting up a website, you are infact incorrect. It clearly states in my employment contract that i can not run a business whilst working for the company. however i am not running a business, i have not registered as a buiness or as a sole prorietor, therefore the website is nothing more then a personal venture set up in my own time, and not that of a business venture. To call it a business when it and/or i am not registered as such would be the same as saying "everyone that uses ebay to sell things, is running a business". would you say i was running a business if i was a stall holder at a car boot sale? no probably not! as i do not need to have a buisness or be registered as one to sell products as a personal venture to suppliement my income.

 

I also point out that the supplier who informed you of my website and my account with them has infact committed a criminal act. as they were in breach of the Data Protection Act and the information Act as they did not have my permission to share such information or data with 3rd parties such as yourselves. i accordingly reserve my rights to deal with them though appropriate legal channels. therefore any action taken by you as a result of such information being given to you would also mean you are acting unlawfully, as you woud be using information or property obtained as a result of a criminal act to your own benefit. I will therefore take the appropriate legal action required if you are to continue your current course of action.

 

I therefore given all the above, suggest that before you make any discision that you should consider the consequences of any action you take against me. if you see the error of your actions, then i request a formal apology and that all notes regarding this matter be removed from my employment file.i also request that all information obtained as a result of the said suppliers criminal act be destroyed. i also inform you that you are also subject to the Data protection act and the imformation act and therefore must not disclose the imformation obtained to anyone without my permission doing so would be an criminal act.

 

Please note that this letter is not in anyway to be assumed to be a threat it is simply to make you aware of your legal responsibilities and my legal position in the event that you fail to respect your legal responsabilities

 

Yours Sincerely

 

Joe

Some good advice - I've fixed some of the spelling typos.

[Stornoway]

thank you for the letter, i have obviously discussed this with my partner over the last day and it has been decided to take the gamble and try and run with starting to turn it into a business - but obviously i will not be allowed to work for my present employer so how do i handle the situation now?

 

do i hand my notice in monday/tuesday before they have a chance to dismiss me do i have to work my calendar month notice period?

can i still re-activate the website and not worry about being in breach?

 

Reggy

 

If you have done nothing wrong then the very least I'd be doing is to negotiate some kind of severance from them - you should be looking for at least as much as you would get in statutory redundancy.

 

Cheers

[teaboy2]

 

Dear Sir/Madam

 

With regards to our dicussion on friday in relation to my actions of setting up a website in my own personal time as my own personal venture. i hereby inform you that such discussion was a breach of employment law, as it was infact a disciplinary hearing in which you had failed to give me prior notice of or advise me of my legal rights to have a person of my choice attend the meeting with me (whether union representative, friend, colleage or solicitor). You also made clear that a decision about my future employment with the company would be made today (monday). i am therefore of the belief that you intend to inform me whether i have been dismissed or not. Such dismissal would be a breach of employment laws and a breach of my contract with the company, as you will have clearly not followed the correct disciplinary procedures as set out and governed by employment law. therefore any dismissal would be unlawful and i will take the matter up with an employment tribunal.

 

With regards to your comments as to myself being in breach of contract as a result of setting up a website, you are infact incorrect. It clearly states in my employment contract that i can not run a business whilst working for the company. however i am not running a business, i have not registered as a buiness or as a sole prorietor, therefore the website is nothing more then a personal venture set up in my own time, and not that of a business venture. To call it a business when it and/or i am not registered as such would be the same as saying "everyone that uses ebay to sell things, is running a business". would you say i was running a business if i was a stall holder at a car boot sale? no probably not! as i do not need to have a buisness or be registered as one to sell products as a personal venture to suppliement my income.

 

I also point out that the supplier who informed you of my website and my account with them has infact committed a criminal act. as they were in breach of the Data Protection Act and the information Act as they did not have my permission to share such information or data with 3rd parties such as yourselves. i accordingly reserve my rights to deal with them though appropriate legal channels. therefore any action taken by you as a result of such information being given to you would also mean you are acting unlawfully, as you woud be using information or property obtained as a result of a criminal act to your own benefit. I will therefore take the appropriate legal action required if you are to continue your current course of action.

 

I therefore given all the above, suggest that before you make any discision that you should consider the consequences of any action you take against me. if you see the error of your actions, then i request a formal apology and that all notes regarding this matter be removed from my employment file.i also request that all information obtained as a result of the said suppliers criminal act be destroyed. i also inform you that you are also subject to the Data protection act and the imformation act and therefore must not disclose the imformation obtained to anyone without my permission doing so would be an criminal act.

 

Please note that this letter is not in anyway to be assumed to be a threat it is simply to make you aware of your legal responsibilities and my legal position in the event that you fail to respect your legal responsabilities

 

Yours Sincerely

 

Joe

Some good advice - I've fixed some of the spelling typos.

 

Thanks for that stonoway lol.

[reggyperin]

i have only been there for just over 2 years not sure what that would get me

[teaboy2]

thank you for the letter, i have obviously discussed this with my partner over the last day and it has been decided to take the gamble and try and run with starting to turn it into a business - but obviously i will not be allowed to work for my present employer so how do i handle the situation now?

 

do i hand my notice in monday/tuesday before they have a chance to dismiss me do i have to work my calendar month notice period?

can i still re-activate the website and not worry about being in breach?

 

My advice is to stay working whilst you work to setting up the business in your personal time. It takes months to setting up a business and its not just about having a website. theres lot of work involved. so id carry on working follow the advice given so far, and work on the business idea you have in your private time but do not register a business until after you have left employment and ready to open the doors to your business. this way your employers can not do anything to stop you whilst you still work for them. they can only stop you if its a registered business.

 

if however you choose to leave work on monday then let them dismiss you as that would be unfair dismissal and you can put a claim in for compensation by means of a tribunal, BIG benefit to your future businesses capital. plus you cant claim jobseekers is resign for upto 12 weeks i think.

 

But as i said, if i was you id follow the advice here and wait it out until your in the position to open your buisness to trade. and again having a created a website and put it live never ever means your going to get sales from it over night. i dont know what products you supply but in my case i supply cunsumble for printers, but i make 95% of income through my telesales team. So you might want to look into doing that as your main cause of creating revenue and have your website as secondary source of income. Talk to business link as theyll help provide you with useful contacts and free advice in all aspects of setting up and running a business they also have workshops for you to goto too which are really good. you need to look into all aspects cos one oversight could cost you dear not just business wise but legally wise too.

 

Also i am more then willing to give more advice about setting up a buiness simply post your questions on the here.

 

with regards to reactivating your website if you have transfered the files as a back up on your computer then yes simply reactivate the domain name and transfer the files for the webites back to the websites backend suite using FTP software to transfer them over.

[teaboy2]

i have only been there for just over 2 years not sure what that would get me

 

it will get you quiet a bit. it doesnt matter how long u been there, unfair dismissal is unfair dissmissal regardsless of your time working for the employer.

 

note you can still take them to tribunal whilst you still work for them. so regardless of the out come on monday if they dont formally apologise you can still take them to trubunal while continuing to work for them on the gorounds that they did not follow the corredt discilipinary procedures.

Edited October 17, 2009 by teaboy2

[reggyperin]

teaboy, with regards to staying at work and carrying on with the website that would be ideal however i was told that the website had to be taken down to come back to work - which it now is.

 

If i put the website back up (and they will check) they are not going to be happy as the products on the site were the same as my current employers.

 

just had a quick look through my contract of employment and it mentions this extract from the conflicts of interest section:

 

"without the companies consent engage in any other trade or business"

[teaboy2]

Well since you wont actually be trading while your still with them then theres nothing they can do to stop you from building the website. You should however remove the shopping cart buttons until you do start trading. that way they cant say "well your still trading on your website", and include information for potential customers that the site is still under construction and no purchases can be made whilst the site is under construction of somthing along those lines. For them to say you are trading then theyd have to prove it otherwise they can accuse you as much as they like and cant do a thing about it.

 

So basically with you removeing the shoping cart buttons from the site then its impossible for anyone to goto the site and purchase from the site. Therefore you can not possibly be trading. So they cant do a thing about the website so long as you remove the option to purchase items.

 

is that statment in the company policy hand book or actually in your contract? if in the company policy then nothing they can do to stop you trading as they'd then be saying that such policy was law, when it is not! as no law in the land states that you can not run a business or trade under one whilst working for another company full time. if its in your employment contact then you are contractually bound to it. (will look into that more for you to be certain)

 

But really it doesnt make any difference so long as you remove the shopping cart they then can not do sweet f all about your website as you will not be trading or registered as a business until after youve left the company.

 

Also the products in question - your bosses do not have any itellectual property rights too. only the manufacturers own the intellectual property rights, copyrights, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights to them etc, neither do they own the rights to be the sole seller/provider/supplier of such products. therefore can not stop you from selling them.

 

Infact do you have a buiness plan at all as yet?

 

so can you post a copy of what esle it says about what you can and can not do?

Edited October 17, 2009 by teaboy2

[teaboy2]

also when they pay you do they pay your income tax and insurance for you or do you pay them yourself as you would if still self employed?

[reggyperin]

the extract is from my contract, i have never seen a handbook at my place of work.

 

i do not have a business plan as such, obviously i have thrown the idea around in my head for some time and layed the ground work with regards to google and the SERPS other than that i have nothing written down.

 

the only problem i can see is if i go back on monday like nothing has happened - bring back the website even less the buy buttons - it will not go down very well at all it would be almost like standing behind someone pulling a face and they cant see or do anything about it - other than try to find a way to get rid of me legitimately which then makes the work place even more unbearable

 

my taxes are deducted from my wages - i tried to take myself off the register as self employed a while ago but was told its best to do it as your handing in or filling out the forms end of year

[teaboy2]

i know what you mean when you say they would try get rid of you legitimately but end of day that would be construtive dismissal and chances are they wont succed in legitimately getting rid of you so long as you keep your head down.

 

ive looked into the conflict of interest issue and as you are not currently trading and have not trading in the past then there is no conflict of interests as you plan for a buiness is set in the future where for a conflict of interest to have occured you would have to be trading right now and in the past.

 

Also instead of putting the wbesite live you can buy software or free software such as dreamweaver from acrobat that will allow you to design your website and save the files without having to upload it to your domain name. In otherwords youd be working offline on building a website and dont need to make your site live again until your ready to start the business. So that solves the problem completly.

 

with regards to the hand book then the company has to provide it to you within 2 months of when you started. you should ask them for one in wrting. if they refuse then they breaking the law.

 

Anyway now you know you can build and work on the site without having it online your problems are solved with regards to how theyll take it. but still take the letter in the posts above when you go in monday.

 

with regards to your business plan ill send you a template used by the princes trust so that youll have and idea of what you need in your business plan. note if your a certain age you will be eligible for grants to help get you started so it worth talking to the princes trust and to businesslink about obtaining grants to start up the business. If you pm me your email ill sent you the template and gudiance documents.

 

trust me although it seems lot of work to get buisness set up it is believe it or not rather easy to do.

[reggyperin]

had a look through the attachement there is a lot of info about cashflow and future cashflow - the issue i have here i have no idea how many people will buy from my site, i have a rough estimate of 3-5% of visitors but then i do not know how many visitors i will get!!!!!

 

back to the website, the site is actually a shopping cart and as such cant really be opened in a html application the products are added by csv file and the playing i liked to do has to be done either live or a test server or subdomain

[teaboy2]

Sorry for the delay getting back to you Reggyperin.

 

With regards to your site visitors, the problem is as you stated not knowing how many people will visit your site. Thats why a website should be only seen as a secondary source of income for any new business. In other words when setting up a business you need to think of a more direct approach of getting customers. Mine for example is telesales, where i simply phone round a specific type of customers such as Gp surgeries, goverment bodies/departments, schools, solicitor firms and large and small business (private and public), anyone you no that will need your product, dont call the general public though stick to supplying businesses etc to start with and then use a different way of reaching the general public to get your company name out to them, such as posters in local shop windows and adverts in local paper when you have the cash flow to afford it say a year or 2 down the line even hand out business cards in the street cos that works lol i did that one day and the next few weeks i was getting calls from general public and ended up running out of stock on ink cartridges for brands of printers popular with the public, like epson. Now you already know who your customers are going to be becuase you already deal with them day in day out while at your current job, so you know who the customers are so you know whos going to be in need of your products so you got a big advantage there.

 

So what you need to do is think about who your customers will be and how your going to get them to buy from you, and a direct approach like phoning them up is the cheapest and quickest way of getting customers, all you have to do is make it a informal call to inform them of your company and and what your company does and then ask if theyd like you to send them some information via fax/email or post along with some prices. Then you simply call the back after 3-4 weeks as a follow up call (thats if they not already purchased from you) if your product is a product where they will need to keep replacing it with a new one then always call them again weather the purchased or not every month or 2. Best software to use for a customer mangement database is ACT 2009/2010. its easy to use and its what i use myself, you can also set call remainders and meeting reminders.

 

So basically you can not simply base your business around a website in the hope your going to get visitors. like i said in an earlier post, i make roughly 95% of my income from telesales meaning only 5% of my total income comes in from my website. basically a website is nothing more then a free advertising tool, but to use it as a sole source of income is very very risky, as theres so many other sites for them to choose from, where on the phone to them, they only got you to choose from out of say maybe 2-3 other companys and if your price is right and your phone mannerism is right they will buy from u, even if your not the quite the cheapest. Now when i say phone mannerism i mean never ever use the typical sales call technique cos they all hate sales calls, i hate them and you hate them so if we wouldnt buy from a typical scripted sales call then they probably wont either. So instead be yourself on the phone be honest to them dont keep to specfic script let it flow. First few days off calling ull probably be a bag of nerves or have a crap time on the phone with regards to getting the way you call and how you talk to them right. but after a while you develop your own kind of way of talking on the phone that will work. yes make up a script to follow as and example as what to say but dont read it as you talking to the customer like you would a book lol cos that never works and they can tell your reading from it too. so simply use it when u first start and as an example for you to refer to to keep the call simple.

 

now i going to have a look into the website issue your having but it would help to know what tools you were using or incase you were building using the domain providers included backend tools to the site then it would help to know who your domian provider is. i myself work with HTM and not really bother with CSV or Mysql databases type of structure for websites, am guessing your website uses a Mysql database in its backend where all the products on the site are listed? So ill look into it and see if i can come up with something that will help you.

Edited October 19, 2009 by teaboy2

[teaboy2]

When you import the CSV files from your website to your computer are you able to open them in EXCEL? If so you can create a new save copy of the CSV as a EXCEL (.XLS) file and use dreamweaver to open EXCEL (.XLS) files. whatever you do though when you import the CSV file make sure you make a back up copy of it. Its also possible to import CSV files to dreamweaver or to create an HTML Table and export as a CSV file.

 

The following website includes a manual that will be very helpful to you. the page for CSV files is 142. Click Here

 

Alternatively you may want to go for designing a simplier site. have a look at mrsite.co.uk. you simply login to the back end and add and paste normal text and it will convert everything to HTM for you automatically. you can transfer your current domain name to the mrsite server domain too (so you get to keep your website address i.e ebay.co.uk) or simply start a new domain name (ideal if you not want your bosses to no about it) also all the shopping carts are preadded all you need to do when adding your product is enter the price and postage amounts. The shopping carts are paypal. you get a complete manual explaining everything to you and its very simple just like cut and paste. you can also create your own webpage with dreamweaver and export it to the site using FTP software, but make sure you import the original site files to your computer and save them as a back up.

 

I know it be a lot of work but it might be the simpler option for you depending on your level of website design knowledge or experience.

 

personally though you should concentrate more on setting up the website as a secondary income stream. and concentrate for now on what you will do as a primary income stream i.e Telesales. i can easily make in one phone call anything from between £15 gross profit for just 1 toner to £400-£500 pounds or more for a multiple toners and drum units for them all in one phone call, a lot of money for just a 5-10minute call. where i might be lucky for the website to make £500 in a month.

 

Hope all this helps you.

 

Whats your product anyway?

Edited October 19, 2009 by teaboy2

[teaboy2]

Also i been thinking about the bit in your contract where it states under conflict of interest:

 

that you must not engage in any other trade or business (qoute "without the companies consent engage in any other trade or business")

 

Now ive had a long hard think about that. And it is infact misleading, so in order to be legally enforceable it must be completely clear and not open to misinterpretation.

 

reason its misleading is as follows:

 

use of wording any other trade - trade isnt just based on the fact your selling something, as trade also includes buying. I.e if you purchase a newspaper from the newsagent you are therefore effectivley engaging in trade with the newsagent as your trading (or trade) your cash for a newspaper. So what it says in your contract is misleading as it implies you can not engage in any other trade. the words any other trade can be interpreted as any form of trade or trading, as they not make it clear or specify what the words any other trade refer to. So basically, what it says is that you need the companies consent to goto the shops and buy a newspapers, your weekly shopping and even the toilet paper to wipe your arse with. so they are effectively saying any other trade as in any form of trading, including buying the toilet paper, is to them a conflict of interest.

 

so as things stand at the moment, due to the way they have worded their terms. such term is in breach of your satutory rights and therefore unlawful. so therefore the term can not legally be enforced as part of your contract and if they dismiss you based on that non lawful term, then they will have effectively committed offence. so tell them to stick that in their pipe and smoke it.

 

So you may wish to add that to the letter i posted earlier under the bit about you not being in breach of contract. tehy will argue that it refers to trading in competition to them. but no matter how much they argue it, stick to your guns and say "well that may be so, but it has to specifically state so in the contract in order for it to be enforcable and as such it does not state that, there for their argument is of no effect as the contract states otherwise". alos they would be arguing their interpetation of the term and therefore proving you point that it is open to interpetation, and therefore open to misinterpetation, making it an non legally enforceable term. so id like to see them try argue to that aswell lol.

 

therefore u can put the website back online whenever u like. as you havent engaged in any trade nor are u register as a buisness as yet and therefore it can not be seen as a conflict of interest until you do engage in trade/trading or registered as a buisness. because only and present or past running of a buisness or trading can be seen as conflict of interest, future intentions of trading or running a buisness can not been seen as a conflict of interest, as the conflict has not yet accured and will not accure until you engage in your first trade (sale) or register as a buisness. the website is therefore nothing more the a personal creation and there is nothing they can do about it. and even if a you do trade theirs nothing they can do about it as the term regarding needing consent to engage in any other trade in your contract is unlawful due to what i said above.

 

Infact just another point the way they worded the term could also be interpreted as saying "you need there consent to engage in any other trade or buiness" meaning any trade or business that is not the same as theirs. which therefore means your open to trade and run a business that is the same as theirs without needing their consent but not any other form or trade or business that is different to theirs. now i hope you can see the flaws in the term in oyur contract and undersatnd why it is therfore not enforcable under law due to it be open to such wide scale misinterpretation.

 

this is the argument you should use with them and at tribunal if you choose to go to tribunal.

Edited October 19, 2009 by teaboy2

[teaboy2]

Hi reggyperin

 

any update? and how things going with your business plan, have you started trading yet or still in the process of setting up the business?