I have a situation where a senior member of staff resigned about five months ago in a huff. It has come to my knowledge that he has been looking around for work elsewhere and his search has to date not secured him a role commensurate to what we were paying him and his position with us before he left.

I have recently been told by a new employee of mine who started recently that this ex-employee has been ringing a present employee of mine in the office on her mobile phone during office hours daily and been asking all sorts of questions relating to our business and customers some of which are extremely confidential and are part of our trade secrets. Our existing staff has been giving the information he has been requesting as well.
The difficulty is that I have no evidence other than the new staff’s word (he has politely declined to get involved in this matter). I am very concerned about this and don’t know how to put a stop to this leak.

The contract of employment does specify that we take confidentiality very seriously and any breaches will lead to disciplinary action.

Can someone please help as we really cannot afford to divulge our trade secrets which is what gives us an edge over our competititors. We are also a small company and both my wife and I work very hard at the business.

Joe