Hi there. It sounds like you are in a difficult position. Your situation raises two separate legal issues. The first relates to your previous employment with the company. All Australians are entitled to a fair workplace and to have their rights respected as a worker. The law provides ‘general protections’ to all employees, which are designed to protect workplace rights, such as receiving a particular benefit or making a complaint against your employer. If an employer takes adverse action against you because you exercised a workplace right, such as firing you or treating you differently, then you can take legal action against the employer for their wrongful actions. The ‘general protections’ regime also protects other employee rights such as freedom of association and freedom from workplace discrimination.

If you experienced any of these rights violations at your previous employment and you were part of the national workplace system, you may have a legal claim against your former employer under the ‘general protections’ regime. If you were not part of the national workplace system, you may still have a legal claim for unlawful termination if your employment was terminated for an improper reason, such as participation in union activities, filing a complaint or discrimination.

Note that most workplace actions involving termination of employment need to be lodged with the Fair Work Commission (www.fwc.gov.au) within 21 days of the termination taking effect. If you have missed this deadline, you can apply to the Commission for permission to lodge a late application.

The second legal issue arising from your situation relates to your former employer’s legal action to stop you trading and recover damages. From the information you provided, the legal basis for their claim is not clear. The former employer may be suing you for breach of employment contract. This means that the employer believes that you did not comply with the terms and conditions of the employment contract you signed with them. An employment contract is like any legal contract: the parties must do what they have promised to do under the contract. If you breached the terms of your employment contract, without a valid legal defence, then your former employer may commence legal proceedings to recover damages for any loss they have suffered.

Your former employer may also be seeking to enforce a restraint of trade clause. This is a term in an employment contract under which the employee agrees not to engage in trade that would compete with the former employer. A restraint of trade clause usually remains in force even after the employment contract has ended. If your former employment contract contained a restraint of trade clause, you may be restricted in where you work, for how long, and what type of work you do. Your former employer may have commenced legal action against you because they believe you are trading in violation of a restraint clause. Australian law says that these clauses must be reasonable and in the interests of the parties to the contract and in the interests of the public. This means that you may be able to defend the legal action on the basis that the clause is not in the interests of you, your former employer and the public.