HONGKONG Telecom staff unions are angry about a new undertaking which some employees are required to sign, forbidding them from contact with the company's customers, employees and agents within six months of resigning. Chairman of the Hongkong Telephone Company Staff Association, Terry Ip Kwok-fun, said those who were asked to sign the undertaking were worried about what would happen if they signed - or refused to sign. One of the promises the employees are asked to make is that they will not 'either directly of indirectly solicit, entice away, canvass or approach any person who at any time is or has been a customer, officer, employee or agent of Hongkong Telecom' within six months of leaving the company. Mr Ip said terms such as 'approach' in the undertaking were not clearly defined and the staff association's legal adviser believed the document might not be binding. He said the association had sent a letter to the company demanding it stop asking employees to sign the undertaking until they clarified the terms. Those asked to sign the undertaking were the 'cream' of various levels in the company, who were chosen by branch managers to 'progress to another step' based on their performance. However, Mr Ip said the company did not have any yardstick to assess performance and branch managers could make subjective decisions on who would become 'cream staff'. He did not accept the firm's claim that it did not want staff to leak information to future competitors.
