Client poaching

[manga]

An employee left my Hair salon 3wks. ago, after 16 yrs. of employment and has been phoning and posting leaflets through clients doors explaining that she is available for home visits, resulting in many clients cancelling their pre-booked weekly future appointments. Clients have also told me that her daughter has contacted them on her behalf to book appointments with her. We only ever had verbal contracts as the employee was employed by the previous owner fo 8yrs. I was informed at the time that this would be sufficient as the continuation of conditions of employment were consistent, eg, holiday allowance, hours worked. The Salon is situated within easy walking distance (approx.3mins) from her home and clients that she attended to are very much in the same vicinity. Do I have any rights at all to claim loss of projected earnings and interuption of business.

[HowardKennitby]

Without anything in writing I think you will have difficulty in restricting this person's ability to trade.

[Smowball]

I think what she is doing is very mean but without a written contract with you I dont see what you can do. Maybe do a special promo with a discount for all that book this month?

[mike11111]

A salutory lesson for people in such lines of business where competition is likely. Most contracts of employment here would contain a clause in restraint of trade, preventing an ex-employee from setting up a like business for a certain period of time and within a certain area. Legal advice is needed as some such clauses may not be upheld by the courts depending on the reasonableness of the restraint.

[baza]

smowballs idea may help restore some of your clients, and being a mean person i would also stripe her up to the taxman as she might be working cash in hand.

[lcg]

no....without proof of an agreement not to poach clients (i.e. written proof), you haven't really got a leg to stand on. she no longer works for you, and can do as she pleases with hers. next time....get things in writing!

[tonywiltshire]

Mike is quite correct you are probably thinking of is a restraint of trade condition, you do have a protectable interest and therefore could have inserted as an express condition, anti-solicitation or a restrictive covenant to try to avoid poaching within a contract of employment, even then it would have been for a limited time scale and limited area and may have been challenged on the grounds that the employee was unable to engage in their trade without undue restrictions, you would have obtained this employee under the TUPE regulations 1981 and it may have been difficult to then impose these express conditions. Without a written contract of employment, including these restrictions you have little legal remedy.
You could write to your ex-employee and say you believe it to be morally wrong (a popular phrase nowadays) to use your client base to start her business, but if she chooses to ignores you will just have to compete, you will be aware that this is quite a common occurrence in your industry.