Garden Leave

mummyemmy

I have a question on behalf of a friend. She is to be made redundant in 6 weeks, her company have told her that the next 6 weeks will be paid garden leave. Can the company ask her to work some shifts during her garden leave.

Appreciate your advice...

LittleVoice

She is still employed during this period and I see no reason why they could not decide to ask her to do some work - they are paying for her time and she should not be working for anyone else during that period.

anniecave

the term garden leave is normally used when the employer wants the employee to not be "in work" for the time period, but they are still employed until a given date. An example of this is often whe employee has handed in their notice and the employer is concerned there will be problems with data confidentiality or issues with other members of staff etc if they remain at work, so pays them to stay away in effect. It is also used if someone has been given notice to leave and the same sort of issues could arise.

Either way the term is normally used for when the employer doesn't want the employee to be at work.

It also normally means they are not allowed to start any other work until they have officially ended the garden leave.

Always check with your employer if you are not sure. They will be quite happy to tell you!

Take a look at this website - it explains it a bit more

http://www.iambeingfired.co.uk/gardenleave.html

McKneff

Does that mean that the difference between garden leave and pyment in lieu of notice is that the first you can be called back into work at any time during that leave and not allowed to get another job till the garden leave is ended and the other is that you finsih on the day of the start of your notice and can get a job at any time. I think thats what i am reading here.

Skint_Lynne

Yes, that's right. Garden leave is when an employer does not want you to work for someone else during your notice period, but they do not want you on their premises either. It is a common practice in sales orientated roles, they want you out of the place before you can get all of your sales contacts together. I have never heard of am employer asking for someone to come in and work during garden leave, but I suppose that they can if they are still paying your wages. HTH.

---lee---

With PILON you are finished and can do what you want - get another job, claim JSA - whatever.

On gardening leave, you are still working for the company but are working notice. The company wants you to stay at home until the notice period ends. Your employer will tell you what's expected of you whilst your at home (for example, you might have to respond to phone calls form work and come in to cover for someone who is sick). There might be no expecations at all.

An important point about gardening leave is that you retain your employee benefits for that period - for example, if you have medical and dental cover, pension etc these are still in operation during the gardening leave period whereas with PILON you must be compensated for the loss of these benefits - which can be complicated.

cmn1977

Hi, so can someone tell me which umbrella i fall under? Am being paid to not work redundancy notice, and termination of employment date 9 weeks down the line. Reason for not having to work notice so that I mat be able to pick up some seasonal work at Easter. Just wondering thats all!
Cx

piggeh

I don't think you can work until the date of termination.

anniecave

cmn1977 wrote: »

Hi, so can someone tell me which umbrella i fall under? Am being paid to not work redundancy notice, and termination of employment date 9 weeks down the line. Reason for not having to work notice so that I mat be able to pick up some seasonal work at Easter. Just wondering thats all!
Cx

That sounds like it could be pay in lieu of notice to me. And if so, it means you can work somewhere else during your notice period.

But it all depends what your employer thinks. If at all unsure, ask your employer whether you can take up work if you find it or not. They will be able to give you the proper answer!

piggeh

If termination date is in 9 weeks it sounds like gardening leave to me? For example my employer is contractually bound to give me 4 weeks notice (which would be end of march) but stated termination date will be on Monday with payment in leiu of notice.

Maybe confirm the date of termination and ask them if they are able to change it with PILON.

daska

If you can, then get them to put in writing what they expect of you. My husband was told (verbally) that he was free to do what he wanted on gardening leave except that he wasn't allowed to return to the office - so he went skiing. He got back to find a letter that he was in breach of contract because he wasn't available to work. Thankfully his manager backed him up about the advice he had been given and it was all smoothed over.