Contracting whilst on Gardening Leave?

**NotAllThere** · 24 February 2012, 14:05

First rule of contracting. What does the contract with your current employer say?

I'd be surprised if you can lose redundancy pay if you break the gardening leave. That sounds like to me it's not really redundancy.

**Scrag Meister** · 24 February 2012, 14:15

WNATS for starters. Read the documentation around the redundancy and your employment contract.

How long is the gardening leave? 1 month? 3 months?

Would have thought there is someway around it.

Its your Ltd that would be making the money and you are just helping them out doing some voluntary work to fill your time during your gardening leave?

**northernladuk** · 24 February 2012, 14:53

Originally posted by Scrag Meister View Post

Its your Ltd that would be making the money and you are just helping them out doing some voluntary work to fill your time during your gardening leave?

The OP has to be very careful here. Being on Gardening leave means you are still employed and have to be available for the company (in most cases) You cannot take any other work that means you could not be called back up at a moments notice. I believe this is the case during redundancy or not.

I would personally take some legal advice here, or speak to the HR and be honest about it. Mess this one up and you could quite easily be sacked. It is highly likely you are being made redundant for cost cutting purposes so I strongly believe they will not hesitate to use this as an excuse to bin you.

As I say, speak to your employers HR. Being devious is NOT the way forward. As you are still employed with the company it is your duty to make HR aware of what you plan.

Also....you really should have a better understanding of what you are undertaking before you jump in. You cannot just start a contract and start working. You have to understand your status when you were for a brolly i.e. employed, and the same for LTD.

In this situation I would personally not attempt to fudge the system by what Scag says either. If your employer calls you back while you are in contract you are in a mountain of trouble.

**Scrag Meister** · 24 February 2012, 15:14

Originally posted by northernladuk View Post

The OP has to be very careful here. Being on Gardening leave means you are still employed and have to be available for the company (in most cases) You cannot take any other work that means you could not be called back up at a moments notice. I believe this is the case during redundancy or not.

I would personally take some legal advice here, or speak to the HR and be honest about it. Mess this one up and you could quite easily be sacked. It is highly likely you are being made redundant for cost cutting purposes so I strongly believe they will not hesitate to use this as an excuse to bin you.

As I say, speak to your employers HR. Being devious is NOT the way forward. As you are still employed with the company it is your duty to make HR aware of what you plan.

Also....you really should have a better understanding of what you are undertaking before you jump in. You cannot just start a contract and start working. You have to understand your status when you were for a brolly i.e. employed, and the same for LTD.

In this situation I would personally not attempt to fudge the system by what Scag says either. If your employer calls you back while you are in contract you are in a mountain of trouble.

I did this back in the day for 2 weeks of my 1 month consultation period, was offered a new role 8 days after being informed that we were being made redundant. New employer knew the state of play and I was allowed time to go to any required redundancy meetings etc.

Obviously goes without saying that if its going to affect your redundancy payout to avoid at all costs.

**northernladuk** · 24 February 2012, 15:17

Originally posted by Scrag Meister View Post

I did this back in the day for 2 weeks of my 1 month consultation period, was offered a new role 8 days after being informed that we were being made redundant. New employer knew the state of play and I was allowed time to go to any required redundancy meetings etc.

Obviously goes without saying that if its going to affect your redundancy payout to avoid at all costs.

WSS+1. I also left early during my consultation period but this was agreed. Gardening leave is diff. OP needs to be very clear about his position.

**mikedarv** · 24 February 2012, 17:20

Cheers guys.

Yea it's 1 month leave. I did speak to HR yesterday and asked if I could shorten the notice period but if that happened my payout would be compromised. If I told them I had a new job I can see the pay being cut straight away.

Have a proper meeting next week so probably get some answers and see the paperwork then but it's a bit difficult trying to get an answer to a question you're trying to avoid!

In my actual contract there is no mention of gardening leave just a standard notice period.

**psychocandy** · 24 February 2012, 17:37

Originally posted by northernladuk View Post

The OP has to be very careful here. Being on Gardening leave means you are still employed and have to be available for the company (in most cases) You cannot take any other work that means you could not be called back up at a moments notice. I believe this is the case during redundancy or not.

I would personally take some legal advice here, or speak to the HR and be honest about it. Mess this one up and you could quite easily be sacked. It is highly likely you are being made redundant for cost cutting purposes so I strongly believe they will not hesitate to use this as an excuse to bin you.

As I say, speak to your employers HR. Being devious is NOT the way forward. As you are still employed with the company it is your duty to make HR aware of what you plan.

Also....you really should have a better understanding of what you are undertaking before you jump in. You cannot just start a contract and start working. You have to understand your status when you were for a brolly i.e. employed, and the same for LTD.

In this situation I would personally not attempt to fudge the system by what Scag says either. If your employer calls you back while you are in contract you are in a mountain of trouble.

NLUK is right. You're still employed so they can call you back in if they want to.

I took voluntary at the beginning of the year, along with a few others. Couple of months gardening leave until redundancy process finished. Took them a few weeks to release me though even though I was leaving anyway...

Company made it clear that they could call you back in. They did for a few people. They also made it clear that if they found out you'd been working it would be a breach of the agreement.

I knew a few who did do it but I didnt because it wasn't worth the risk. Contract started a week after 'official' leaving date so no hassles....

**SueEllen** · 24 February 2012, 19:34

Gardening leave is also often offered to ensure you either can't work for existing or former company clients, or don't give sensitive commercial information to your new company or clients.

If there is no risk of you doing this as your work doesn't involve you working with such commercial information/clients and your current employment contract doesn't forbid you from doing other work while employed at the company and you have no need to ask for permission - and I suggest you get a legal opinion on this as you may need them if your ex-employer decides to interpret it different - then you can probably take the contract as long as you are available to do your employer's bidding at short notice.

Lots of employers do put terms in their contracts which don't stand up on further scrutiny but there are lots of little niggling terms that do that can screw people. This one reason why you should always get a qualified legal opinion before doing anything including talking to HR.

HR work for the company not you.

**mudskipper** · 24 February 2012, 21:33

Use the time to brush up your skills - maybe get some certifications, ready to hit the ground running when you are free.

Contracting whilst on Gardening Leave?