Special clauses
Many employment contracts contain one or more special clauses.
Non-competition clause
A non-competition clause restricts the employee’s choice to work for a new employer/client in a certain way after termination of the employment contract. Such a non-competition clause may be important for the (former) employer to protect its competitive position and trade secrets. Such a non-competition clause is often included in employment contracts.
Under the law, a non-competition clause must be agreed in writing with an adult employee. The requirements for non-competition clauses have been greatly increased by the introduction of the Wwz. If a non-competition clause is to work well and stand up in court, it must be carefully worded and tailored to the specific business circumstances. We will be happy to advise you on this.
Ancillary activity
An ancillary activity clause is the clause which usually stipulates that an employee may not carry out any ancillary activities during the period of employment without the explicit permission of the employer. If the bill to implement “EU Directive on transparency and predictable employment conditions” is adopted, there will be a general ban on unsubstantiated ancillary work clauses as of August 1, 2022.
Unsubstantiated ancillary work clauses set out in employment contracts already concluded will therefore, in principle, be null and void as of 1 August when the intended legislation is introduced. After August 1, 2012, ancillary employment conditions may only be valid if the employer has a good objective reason to prohibit ancillary employment. A good reason may, for example, lie in the sphere of confidentiality of business information, the protection of health and safety or the avoidance of conflicts of interest.
Study costs clause
Employers must enable employees to take the training necessary to perform their jobs. The employer usually pays the costs for this. A study-costs clause may stipulate that the employee must repay the training costs, for example if he leaves his job.
If the bill is adopted, study-costs clauses with respect to compulsory training will be null and void as of August 1, 2022, and employers will have to keep employees free for this category of training costs. This regulation does not apply to non-compulsory training. The question of when training is compulsory or not is therefore important but it is not always easy to draw the line. We would be happy to advise you on this.
