Employees have a duty to their former employers to refrain from using confidential information of the business, following the termination of their employment.
For information to be considered confidential, it should meet the following criteria, as set out in the case of Coco v A N Clark (Engineers) Limited [1969] RPC 41 at 47:
- Information must have the necessary quality of confidence about it (ie it must be of a confidential nature);
- Information must have been imparted in circumstacnes importing an obligation of confidence (ie during employment); and
- Unauthorised use of the information would result in detriment of the party confiding the information (ie the employer).
There is an obligation to keep confidential information confidential, even after termination of employment. For the employees of professionals, the disclosure of confidential information by employees will result in serious repercussions for employer, due to the concepts of confidentiality and privilege. Usually there are terms within the employment contracts of employees which state the requirement of confidentiality and so a breach of this would also be a breach of the employee’s employment contract.
Confidential information and its use and disclosure can be included within employment agreements. Generally, there are no clauses in contracts which protect the use of knowledge of general processes and management details.
Some measures taken to protect confidential information include restrictive covenants, injunctions and court orders.
How can Prime Lawyers help you?
If you are an employer and are concerned that an ex-employee may use confidential information that you imparted to them during their employment to your detriment, Prime Lawyers can assist you. Likewise, if you are an ex-employee of a business and are unsure as to whether the information imparted to you is in fact confidential, Prime Lawyers can advise you on the permissible use of such information.