In UBS Wealth Management v Vestra Wealth the High Court ruled “springboard” injunctions should be “available to prevent any future or further serious economic loss to a previous employer caused by former staff members taking unfair advantage…of any serious breaches of their contract of employment (or if they are acting in concert with others, of any breach by any of those others).”
52 UBS employees from their wealth management business resigned as a group and joined Vestra, a business founded by a former senior UBS employee who had left a year before these resignations. UBS got a springboard injunction to prevent Vestra from taking unfair advantage of alleged breaches of contract and unlawful conspiracy to injure. UBS argued that the defecting staff had acted collectively to coordinate the defections and had therefore breached their contractual duties of loyalty and fidelity. The Court decided that senior employees could not keep silent about impending mass resignations and poaching of clients when they knew of them, let alone support the plans. They had a duty to report this to UBS. We infer that Vestra expected the springboard injunction to be upheld at full trial, as they settled out of court.
The judgement in the UBS case makes it clear that springboard injunctions are available without the need to prove breach of confidence. An unfair advantage obtained through any breach of fidelity may found entitlement to injunctive relief. As a result employers may now find it easier to obtain injunctions when faced with team moves and poaching raids.
