Anne Musindo resigned from her job at a niche hair salon last year and joined a competitor in Fourways, north of Sandton. Now the young mother faces 30 days in jail unless she honours a restraint-of-trade deal she signed with Advanced Hair Studios in Sandton barring her from working at any other salon in Gauteng for at least a year.The Labour Court in Johannesburg did not take kindly to Musindo having told the salon management that her reason for leaving was to take care of her husband, injured in a car accident last year.story_article_left1The company rushed to court when she was found working at a different salon, Hair Universal Studios.It successfully argued that Musindo was bound by an employment contract that prohibited her from joining any Gauteng-based competitor in the specialised hair-replacement industry within a year of leaving.Both salons specialise in high-end hair extension and hair-replacement treatments, each boasting a celebrity clientele including South African funny man Leon Schuster, former cricketers Shane Warne and Jacques Kallis, among others.Carl A. Howell, chairman and founder of Advanced Hair Studios, yesterday said: "When we train people we don't want them to leave us and take our secret and intellectual property to our competitors."Howell said the restraint- of- trade terms were standard to the company's employee contracts.Advanced Hair Studios had initially obtained a court order against two other former employees.Once they caught Musindo also working at Hair Universal Studios, they applied to have it extended to her.story_article_right2The order was granted last September, but Musindo said she did not fully understand the issues and continued reporting for work in her new job with the Fourways salon.Advanced Hair Studios went back to court, which two weeks ago found her in contempt of court and sentenced her to 30 days in jail, suspended. The restraint of trade is scheduled to run out in July.Musindo declined to comment, but in an affidavit, she told the court that she had been the sole breadwinner since her husband's accident.Court papers provided insight into the employment terms of Advanced Hair Studios. These included a clause allowing it to monitor and intercept staff communication, calls and internet activity.Advanced Hair Studios' services are, among other things, the supply and replacement of hair membranes for clients with heavy hair loss; and supplying "flashpoints" or hair extensions, mainly for female customers.As well as finding Musindo in contempt of a court order, the court ordered Musindo's new employer to pay a R30000 fine...