MediaWorks in another noncompete dispute – by Tristam Price
- Kim Leighton
- May 2, 2023
- 1 min read
MediaWorks Outdoor Ltd applied, unsuccessfully, for an injunction preventing Mr Dae Chun from working for its competitor, Go Media Ltd for a purported restraint of trade period.
The new employer was joined as a party, and both were represented by Hugh Matthews, with Employment Relations Authority (ERA) Member Rachel Larmer making her determination on 27 April.
James Halpin from Stuff beat us to the story. We don’t mind at all, because that saves us a lot of work, and it’s quite a fun article.
Briefly, the noncompete enforcement failed because in the confusion associated with MediaWorks buying out a smaller company that Chun started with, a noncompete clause was slipped into his new employment agreement but no consideration was paid to support that imposition.
It didn’t help Mediaworks that just a week after it commenced its action against Chu and Go Media, it disestablished TodayFM and all the positions within it, with absurd haste, prompting Tova O’Brien and Duncan Garner to let rip with comments like “They’ve f***ed us” and “This is betrayal” respectively, while employment lawyer Charlotte Parkhill works behind the scenes preparing for a huge personal grievance claim.
Parkhill represented O’Brien in a noncompete dispute with O’Brien’s previous employer, Discovery NZ Ltd in January 2022. National Business Review invited me to write an opinion piece on that matter, but that has well and truly been overtaken by events!
Comments