Teaching Company - Non Compete

[HK119]

Near the end of an interview at a teaching centre, I was asked to fill a personal info form. But at the back of the form, I had to sign an agreement stating that I couldn't work for other competing centres of the same work nature during and after my employment at the company. Is this legal for them to make such requirements? I'm quite reluctant to join the centre now as this is quite a broad restriction.

[MABinPengChau]

This guide is pretty helpful, I looked at in when facing a similar issue for an employee that we were hiring:

https://www.mayerbrown.com/files/upl...t_cov_asia.pdf


Generally, restrictive covenants are not enforceable, especially if overly-broad as yours seems to be (no 3-month time limit, no geographic limitation, etc.). Also it doesn't sound like you would be some kind of senior employee with trade secrets, etc. They would be more successful with an agreement saying that you won't poach students as this has been held to be reasonable.

Despite not really being enforceable, non-competes are still in a lot of employment contracts...(not ours!). It still doesn't make you feel good about signing the contract, I am sure because who needs one more layer of hassle when leaving one job for another.