Dear Agony Uncle,

I would like to seek your advise on the employment contracts:

1. There is a non-disclosure agreement stated in the contract that after resignation, it is not allowed work in a competitor's company for 1 year.

Is this fair to the employee as there is no any compensation for this clause? If I work in a competitor company after resignation, and the previous employer sue me on this, what would be the consequences?

2. Within the contract period of 1 year, if employee resigns, have to inform company one month in advance AND pay company one more month; while if company do not want the employee, it can just inform the employee one month in advance OR just pay one month in lieu.

This is not a fair clause between employee and employer, so will this contract still valid?

Appreciate your time in looking into it and look forward to hear from you soon.

In Singapore, talents are rare. As such the Court are normally reluctant to enforce non-competitive agreement. However the Courts respect the sanctity of ownership of intellectual property and will enforce clause that the ex-employee should not disclose the intellectual property of the ex-employer. So it would be better to wait for the period to expire.

The notice period for employer and employee need not be identical . Before the employee sign the employment agreement he should negotiate for more equitable terms, but once the agreement is signed it would be fruitless to complain. The terms of agreement though inequitable is still valid.