Name change as this is really identifying!
DH has accepted a new (dream) job and handed in his notice but during the due-diligence process his new employer found a 12 month unpaid non-compete period for the eventuality when several other “key persons” have moved to the same company in a 12 month period.
This 12 month period seems to run concurrently with his paid 3 month non compete so it’s 9 months unpaid - assuming that they don’t try to wriggle out of the 3 months paid period. The new company are willing to wait for him (now October/november 2026 as he has a 3 month notice too) but I’m not sure we can last anywhere near that long without his salary!
The unreasonable thing is that the definition of key person is so broad, that it includes just about everyone at the company, which is a few thousand people - some admin staff would probably not reach the salary threshold. This doesn’t feel legal at all as it essentially prohibits just about anyone moving to another big company as it’s almost garunteed that someone else has moved there in the last year.
I understand that this is a “team move” clause and they are legal; they are designed to stop companies poaching whole teams. There are some others who have moved but they work in a totally different part of the business, are much much more senior than him and he’s never actually met (or heard of) them as they left before he started. They had really long gardening leave periods which technically overlapped with his employment, triggering this clause.
He requested clarification from HR last week in his offboarding meet and they said he would hear next week (which is this week), as the week is almost over he chased them yesterday evening for an answer. They have come back saying that most of the lawyers are on holiday this week and next week so it’s going to take a long time for an answer.
This feels totally unreasonable, is there anything he can do to get them to hurry up?
Is this actually a decision that the lawyers need to be a part of or is this a decision that would be made elsewhere in the business and the lawyers just draft the waiver? Has anyone else had something this restrictive?
Just to add more detail, his boss is on holiday for three weeks and is moving to a different role when he gets back, although DH would still report into him. The day before he got his offer from the new company, his boss asked him to step up and take on all of his team lead responsibilities going forward. He handed in his notice before this was communicated to the team but his boss asked him to do it anyway as he doesn’t have anyone else… so DH is helping them out quite a lot and doesn’t have his boss around to push anything through with hr/legal.