As the title suggests, my current dispatch company contract I’m employed at has a clause that summarizes the key points as follows: “that during the 6 month period following resignation or termination of employment, you will not directly or indirectly engage in whether as an employee, consultant, agent,…. of any person, firm, corporation or business that competes with the employer or is a client or customer of the employer and is located within 50 miles radius from the principal office of the employer from which employee renders a majority of services on behalf of the employer, provided however that the running of such time period shall be tolled during any time period during which the employee is in violation the provisions of this paragraph”.
So if I read this correctly, as an engineer in a niche engineering market here in Japan, I basically can’t work in my field within the greater Tokyo area for anyone in my chosen field? How is this legal?
For context, I’m looking to leave the dispatch company, stating my own engineering GK and contact my services out to companies here. In all honesty I really enjoy the company they dispatched me to and was hoping to get on with them as a direct hire, but i think they prefer the “outsider” concept that contractors and dispatch company’s provide (hence starting my own company). Any advice is welcome.
5 comments
Total bullshit condition.
It would cost them too much to sue you.
This is in there for their targeted future employee. People that are illiterate, don’t know the local laws and are easily exploitable. They want them young, dumb and temporary. This also helps kill the “stepping stone” nonsense people believe. They are telling you that you should leave Japan when you are done with this job.
It’s not enforceable, and not legal by the letter. The Japanese constitution guarantees a right to work wherever you choose, and non-competes are intended to stop the transfer or sale of proprietary knowledge, products, or information that could cause financial harm or losses to the original company. They are not intended to suppress a person’s ability to find employment, nor are they intended to kill market competition and they would have to prove damages in order to take legal action.
You can cross out the terms you disagree with before signing, that’s what I do
Not enforceable.