Increase in companies enforcing non-compete clauses: Alan Lewis comments in People Management

Non-compete litigation is climbing sharply, with High Court claims issued by employers against former staff up 43 per cent this year, according to a new report.

A rise in business creation (up 3.5% year on year) and a slowdown for permanent hiring sending professionals into self-employment are cited as two possible reasons for this rise.

Commenting to People Management, Constantine Law partner, Alan Lewis, warns that October 2026 will mark a major turning point: the use of fire-and-rehire tactics to impose new terms, including introducing restrictive covenants, will automatically amount to unfair dismissal: "This means that if employers have contracts in place with employees that really ought to have restrictive covenants introduced to protect the business, they do need to be thinking about making those changes now".

Read the full piece here.