Two young hairdressers were effectively banned from cutting hair in Arbroath for three months on Monday after a sheriff ruled against them in a case brought by their former employer.
Marie Ramminger and Nikki Geddes both found employment at another local salon after recently leaving their jobs at Merchants Hair in Keptie Street but in a bid to protect his business and customer base salon owner Graeme Merchant took the pair to court and successfully won an order banning the women from cutting hair within a half-mile radius of his shop.
The case revolves around contracts the two allegedly signed when they worked for him. Mr Merchant was seeking an order preventing the two from working as hair stylists within a half-mile radius of his salon for a period of six months.
Last week court officers arrived just minutes after Nikki (26), the daughter of former Dundee goalkeeper Bobby Geddes, had started her new job at Sandton Hair in the West Port. She was told while part way through a client’s haircut that she had to leave the premises or face arrest.
At Arbroath Sheriff Court on Monday Sheriff Kevin Veal granted an interdict in favour of the pursuer but reduced the term from six months to three, dating from September 13 in Miss Ramminger’s case and September 15 for Miss Geddes.
After the hearing both women said they would now have to sign on for unemployment benefit as there were no hairdressing businesses outwith the half-mile radius specified by the interdict.
It is understood that their new boss, Scott Stevenson at Sandton Hair, is keeping their jobs open but both women were “gutted” by the decision.
Single mum Miss Ramminger (29), who worked at Merchants Hair for more than a decade and who had been manager of the salon, said she was upset at the prospect of having to sign on.
“I’m gutted and I’m going to have to sign on now, which is something I didn’t want to do,” she said. “It’s impossible for us to find anyone else willing to give us a three-month contract until this order is up and in any case we’d have to travel outside Arbroath to work, which wouldn’t make financial sense.
“I’m pleased that the time was reduced to three months, which means I can be back at work before Christmas. I’ve never ever been unemployed before and that’s the whole reason I decided to fight this.”
Miss Geddes, who was a senior stylist at Merchants Hair, added, “I don’t know what to say but I’m not happy at all. Like Marie I’ve always been in work and it’s a scary thought to think that I can’t cut hair until the middle of December.”
An agent for Mr Merchant said that he had been forced to take the action to protect his business in Arbroath and added that if one more staff member had left then he would have faced having to close the salon completely, putting other livelihoods at risk.
Photo used under a Creative Commons licence courtesy of Flickr user Photos by Lina.