Employment contracts are a large part of the contemporary work environment. Used to legally secure the relationship between employees and their employers, these documents contain a variety of specifications depending on the individual and the field of work they are entering into. Contractual obligations are used to bind employees as long as they are a part of an organization, but they can also be used to restrict the actions of former workers as well. Covenants that prevent a person from pursuing a particular business venture or stealing clients from a business for a certain amount of time are called restrictive contractual covenants. These are a variety of elements that can be determined whether a particular contract is enforceable, however, not all regulations of a company can be and can be expected to be followed (Thomas et al.). Otherwise, a company could engage in unfair and immoral acts of control against its competitors.
One of the larger identifiers is the reasonability of the clause, meaning that its contents should not be contrary to the norms society considers common sense. The constraints should be able to hold up in a court of law. In the geographical sense, the restraint must be reasonable, and in the temporal sphere too. The other expectation for these types of restrictions is that the company must have a legitimate reason to enforce them. An organization must be able to prove that it is preventing the former working from sabotaging their business. The restrictions must be precisely defined, including the time span of the agreement and the scope it occupies (Anzivino). The question of fairness is also applicable from an employee’s perspective, as they act like the ones on the receiving end of a contract. A company has to provide sufficient reason for restricting their workers and offer suitable compensation in return for compliance. This can be accomplished both in the form of monetary compensation and specific work gains.