Employers’ efforts to prevent workers from jumping ship to competitors or launching their own businesses without restriction are becoming increasingly difficult across Asia-Pacific, as new legislation and a tight labour market give employees more power.
As with most labour relations issues, a one-size-fits-all approach to restraint of trade clauses does not work across the Asia-Pacific region. For example, while such clauses cannot exceed 12 months in Australia, Japan allows non-competes for up to two years.