Australia: From Holyoake to broke: duties of loyalty and fidelity to an employer

Pay attention to this case if you’re employed and plan to set up a business to compete with your employer. Even without a restraint of trade clause in the employment agreement you could still come unstuck.
What happened
Holyoake is a company which supplies air-conditioning equipment. Variflow was a competitor.

The managing director and two officers of Holyoake decided to buy Variflow’s business with the aim of running it separately from Holyoake. They paid the deposit and […]

By | March 9th, 2013 ||

Social Media Policies And The NLRB: What Employers Need To Know

Social media policies. Chances are your company has one, is in the process of drafting one, or is worried about not having one. Employees continue to gripe about their jobs and their bosses on Facebook, as states like California enact legislation prohibiting employers from demanding access to employees’ social networking pages. Meanwhile, employers are left to navigate the murky waters of social media regulation without much in the way of clear direction.

Once considered merely […]

By | March 8th, 2013 ||

Brazil: Delays And Unjustified Absences Generate Dismissal With Cause

A former employee of Lojas Americanas was dismissed with cause due to several delays and unjustified absences from work. The sentence of the lower court judge, Sonia Maria Martinez Tomaz Braga, of the 42th Labor Court of Rio de Janeiro, was confirmed by the 1st Panel of the Regional Labor Court of Rio de Janeiro (TRT-RJ), which concluded for the occurrence of negligence, one of the reasons listed in the Consolidated Labor Laws (CLT) […]

By | March 5th, 2013 ||