Employee bound by restrictive covenants in unsigned contract

The High Court has decided that an employee was bound by the terms of a new contract of employment provided to him after he was promoted, but which he had not signed and returned to his employer. The new contract contained post termination restrictive covenants. It was decided that the employee’s acceptance of the new contract could be implied by the fact that he applied for private medical insurance cover that was only available to him under the new contract. The employee was therefore bound by the terms of the new contract from the date he applied for the medical insurance.