Restrictive covenants: Restrictive covenants binding despite unlawful termination clause

The view that restrictive covenants may remain enforceable in the event of termination due to the employer's own repudiatory breach of contract is a legal impossibility, holds the Court of Appeal in Rock Refrigeration Ltd v Jones and another [1996] IRLR 675. Even if, as a matter of language, the covenant purports to apply to unlawful termination in those assumed circumstances, it cannot be an unreasonable restraint of trade and therefore invalid as a whole on that account alone.

Rock Refrigeration Ltd ("Rock") are in business in the Manchester area in connection with the sale, installation and maintenance of refrigeration and environmental control equipment.