Contract clauses, one at a time

A non dealing covenant goes further than a non solicit: it stops a departing employee accepting work from former clients at all, not just chasing them. UK courts enforce it only where it protects a legitimate interest, such as client connections, and goes no further than reasonably necessary in time and scope.

Most businesses worry less about where a departing account manager works next than about which clients and colleagues follow. A well drafted non solicitation clause targets exactly that, which is why it is often the restraint that survives when a broader one fails.

Notice is the clause most people read only on the day they need it. By then its two numbers, what the employer owes and what the employee owes, decide the final pay, the last day and sometimes when a new job can start.

A salary that covers reasonable additional hours sounds tidy until a busy quarter pushes those hours past what the award would have paid for. The overtime clause is where that gap is either measured and paid or quietly left to grow.

Sometimes an employer wants someone gone today, not in three months. A PILON clause makes that lawful under the contract, and the difference it makes to restrictive covenants is often worth more than the money.

A probation clause is most useful as a promise to review performance at a set point and say so in writing. It is least useful when someone believes it lets a job end without notice or protection, because neither is true.

In Australia employees are entitled to be absent on a public holiday, and paid at their base rate for the ordinary hours they would have worked that day. An employer may ask them to work if the request is reasonable, and they may refuse if it is not or their refusal is reasonable. A public holiday clause applies those rules to the employee's own pattern.

Redundancy is the one ending where both sides agree nobody did anything wrong, which is why the payment and the process carry all the weight. A clause that commits to consultation, redeployment and a clear calculation makes a hard conversation shorter and the result easier to defend.

Hybrid arrangements agreed over a coffee tend to unravel when a manager changes or the lease on the office does. A clause that names the days, the workspace rules and the notice needed to change them protects the arrangement for both sides.

Most pay disputes start with one ambiguous word, usually package, inclusive or review. A remuneration clause that states the base figure, what sits on top of it and what a review does and does not promise leaves nothing to interpret on the first pay slip.

Australian drafters cannot know in advance which period and area a judge will accept, so they write several and let the court choose. That device, the cascading restraint, is useful, frequently criticised, and now the subject of federal consultation.

A retention bonus, sometimes called a stay bonus, pays an employee for staying through a critical period. The clause has to answer one question above all: what happens if employment ends before the date. Resignation usually forfeits it, layoff usually pays it, and paying upfront with repayment raises state wage law issues.

A secondment sends an employee to work for a host organisation for a period while they stay employed by their own employer. The clause, usually in a three party agreement, has to make clear that the employer still employs and pays them, the host directs the day to day work, and the employee comes back to their own role at the end.

In the US no federal law requires severance pay, so a severance clause is what creates the right: who qualifies, how much, how it is paid, and what the employee must sign first. For employees aged 40 or over, a valid release of age claims must follow the timing rules of the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act.

A social media clause tells staff what they can and cannot post about their job, the business, its clients and their colleagues, on work accounts and their own. It works best as a short contract term pointing to a fuller policy, and it reaches out of hours posts only where they have a real connection with the employment.

Notice is the price of ending employment in Australia, except where the employee's own conduct is serious enough to forfeit it. The clause names that exception; the Fair Work Regulations and the unfair dismissal rules decide whether it was properly used.

Superannuation clauses written before 1 July 2026 often promise quarterly contributions, a timing that no longer meets the law. A clause that refers to the guarantee rate and the payday deadline, rather than to fixed dates, stays correct when the rules move again.

Paying for a licence or qualification is an investment an employer wants back if the employee leaves straight away. A repayment clause can do that, but only if it reflects real cost, tapers fairly and is agreed before the course starts.

UK law caps the working week at an average of 48 hours, and lets an adult worker sign that cap away. The opt out only works if it is genuinely voluntary, so where and how it is signed matters as much as what it says.

An attribution clause sets the credit a creator gets when their work is used: the exact wording, where it goes, and the cases where a credit is impractical and not required. In Australia individual creators also have a moral right to be attributed, which the clause can shape but cannot simply sign away.

Almost nothing is built from nothing. A development team brings libraries, a studio brings templates, and a consultant brings models, so an assignment clause with no background carve out promises something the maker cannot deliver.

Inside a services or employment agreement, this clause is rarely read until somebody leaves. Its real drafting questions are about how it interacts with the other clauses rather than about the duty itself.

Software suppliers ask customers for ideas constantly, then build the good ones into a product sold to everyone. The feedback clause exists so that nobody later claims a share of a feature because they mentioned it on a support call.

Commissioning work and owning it are different things, and the default under Australian copyright law favours the maker rather than the payer. The clause that changes that has to be in writing and signed to have effect.