Hi i am self employed and i have signed a non compete clause. the salon owner however is making me work hours and being in the salon when i dont want to be thus making me an employee. ( am i right ), at the minute i have a lot going on and unable to be in the salon when i do not have clients and the owner is furious. will my self employed non compete clause be void if the owner asks me to leave or if i leave. i want to carry on working in my trade but this clause is stopping me

Hello m:

It doesn't matter if you're an employee or a contractor. The non-compete will kick in... But, it takes a very skilled lawyer to write a non-compete agreement that will be held up in court.. It would seem to me that a salon owner wouldn't have the resources to have a lawyer draw up these agreements for her.

So, without having READ it, it would be my GUESS that it's NOT binding..

excon

Absolutely agree with excon. What State?

In NY non-competes are basically not being enforced because they force people out of work.

If the salon owner is setting your schedule you are NOT an independent - you ARE her employee.

The contract was just thrown together by the salon owner, i am in the uk so i dont know if things are done differently here.

I agree with the others...every place I've been employed has them, and I've gone between employers over the lasty 30 years without any problems...

How can one employer demand you give up an entire career.

About the only way they might have a chance at enforcing it is if you decided to open a competing shop next door to them or across the street. And even then its going to be expensive for them and not have a guarantee of winning. And the only ones I know of that have actually been enforced, involves someone selling an entire business to someone, then going out and starting up a new one doing the same exact thing (only with a different name) intended to compete directly with the one that was just sold.

Would a Doctor have to give up his career because he left an employer? Would a Solicitor (lawyer) have to do the same if left a firm?

No employer is guaranteeing you a job for life...or would, and yet most non-compete clauses expect you give give up an entire career field. Because every employer in a field actually DOES compete with each other.

Being in the UK, I am sorry I don't know the laws there, and most of the advice you have been given is more for the US.

Did the agreement have a time frame or a location? Most have things like within so many miles or within a certain time.

Also if you don't take customers with you, that often is one issue.

The clause says to not work for 3 months within a 3 mile radius. I have also been given a chance to run my own salon about a mile n a half away n I can think of at least 5 other salons in that distance. If the salon owner keeps treating me like I am an employee then I will have to leave and take up the offer of my own salon