Confidence, obligation employee

If you decide to conduct contractor training in-house, apply the same curriculum you would use with your own employees. If the contractor provides the training, make sure you are confident that it meets the same standards as your own you may also need to review contract language to assure that it properly reflects any adjustments in the contractor s obligations. In a situation that combines both approaches, use these suggestions case by case. 

Employees are in a rather special position. The case of Thomas Marshall referred to above shows that a contract of employment may contain both express and implied obligations to respect the confidentiality of information acquired by an employee in the course of his employment. While the employee continues to be employed by the employer, the obligation of confidence is quite strict. But what happens after that contract comes to an end, for example when the employee goes to work for someone else, or sets up in business on his or her own account Can he or she use all or any of the information learned in the course of the previous employment ... 

We have diseussed the position of one who receives confidential information directly from the person who is entitled to that information, e g. an employee who, in the course of employment, is told the employer s trade secrets. Here generally the employee is bormd to respect the confidentiality of that informatioa But what happens if the employee passes the secret to another, e.g. to a rival concern The rival is not in a contractual relationship to the employer and hence there can be no contractual obligation to respect confidentiality, but here again Equity may step in and hold that the rival is rmder an equitable obligation to respect confidentiality, particularly if the rival has what is known as rmclean hands , that is has been less than honourable in his or her dealings this phrase covers a wide spectrum of abuse. Furthermore, if the rival had deliberately induced the employee to breach an obligation of confidence to the employer, the rival could also be liable in tort for inducing a breach of contract. 

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