Garden Leave Employment Law

What is garden leave in the UK?

Garden leave (sometimes called gardening leave) is part of UK employment law where a business wants to stop an employee from performing their regular duties immediately if they are planning to leave or be dismissed.

At the same time, the company might want to retain the employee on garden leave for the notice period - typically requiring them to stay at home – keeping them away from a competitor for as long as possible.

It’s called garden leave in the UK as the implication is that the employee would be garden (or any other non-business related task), instead of working.

Business may use garden leave to:

Having an express garden leave clause in the employment contract may help deter a competitor from poaching employees in the first place. It may also increase the employer's bargaining position with any disaffected employees.

Can the business place the employee on garden leave?

If a business wants to put an employee on garden leave, it is helpful to be able to rely on express contractual provisions within the employment contract. For example:

Garden leave clauses in employment contracts

If a business places an employee on gardening leave without an express entitlement to do so, a court will consider whether the employee has a contractual right to work. Over the years, most cases have suggested that there’s no implied contractual right to work, but simply a right to be paid.

On this basis, placing an employee on garden leave would not be a breach of contract, even without a garden leave clause. However, businesses should be aware that, more recently, courts have seemed increasingly willing to find that employees do have a right to work. 

Contract of employment and garden leave

The employment contract continues to exist during any period of garden leave. Therefore, the business must continue to:

Enforcing gardening leave in the UK

An employee will breach their contract if they leave employment without giving notice. If a business wants to enforce a garden leave clause, it should refuse to accept the termination of the contract and suspend the employee for the duration of that notice period. The same applies if an employee seeks to resign with immediate effect claiming constructive dismissal.

Protecting employer's legitimate interests

It is likely that a court will only enforce a garden leave provision by way of an injunction if it is used to protect the employer's legitimate interests, such as confidential information. For example, an employee proposing to work for a competitor is likely to damage the employer's business interests.

Relationship with restrictive covenants

Where an employee is placed on garden leave during the notice period, a court may be less likely to enforce post-termination restrictive covenants. Restrictive covenants enable a business to protect its interests by restricting an employee’s activities for a period of time after their employment has ended.

Garden leave FAQs

How long is garden leave in the UK?

There is not set period of length for garden leave, but it could be part of your contract. The longer the period of proposed garden leave, the less likely a court is to enforce it in full. For example, where there is a two-year notice period, it is unlikely that an employer would be able to serve notice and place the employee on garden leave for the whole of that notice period.

Can you request garden leave?

If you are going through constructive dismissal or redundancy, you can request to be placed on garden leave.

What to do on garden leave

If you’re placed on garden leave, you aren’t allowed to take on any additional work outside your original contract. You’re effectively still employed so need to meet the contract you signed. You can go on holiday or start to apply for other jobs.

For advice fro,m employment law solicitors, please contact Neil Largan.