This case involved a dispute between the parties as to whether the employee was bound to a business relations clause that had been included in the staff handbook. For a business relations clause to be valid, the clause must be agreed to in writing. Based on a previous ruling of the High Court, a business relations clause can be included in a staff handbook, if one of the following two requirements have been met:
1) the employee signed a document (mostly the employment contract) in which a reference to the staff handbook has been made, and the staff handbook has been provided to the employee together with the employment contract; or
2) the employee signed a document in which he explicitly agrees to the business relations clause.
In this particular case, the employee had signed the employment contract, in which a reference had been made to the staff handbook. However, the staff handbook had not been provided to the employee together with the employment contract. The employee had received the staff handbook some time later during his employment. The High Court ruled that the requirements mentioned above must be applied strictly in order to ensure that the employee has had the opportunity to carefully consider the consequences before agreeing to such a clause. The same requirements would apply to a non-competition clause.