2nd Job - Will 1st Job Know??

LordMattrick

I'm in an unusual situation - I've been made redundant but as part of it I am receiving 3 months gardening leave. My contract states I cannot take another job in this period without their consent.
My question is, if I were to take a second job, is there any way at all the 1st Job could find out? I'm assuming this could only happen through the tax office, but to give clarity I'd be losing about £2k a month if I took the second job and the first job found out and stopped the gardening leave payments. That said the second job is seasonal so wouldn't be around when the gardening leave expires, so it's only a way to keep busy and top up the income until I can find something permanent.

getmore4less

what if they call you back in to the first job will you be able to drop and go from the second job?

(it is a method some places use if they find out they don't tell you ask you in on short notice)

do you want to risk any redundancy payment?

agrinnall

As gm4l says, it's not really the risk to the gardening leave payments that you shoud be particularly concerned about, it's the risk that they will view breaking the terms of the gardening leave as misconduct and sack you, with no redundancy payment.

I'm not sure why you would need to top up your income when you're already being paid the same monthly amount that you would have been if you were going into work, so if keeping busy is your main concern I would ask your employer if they will allow you to do unpaid voluntary work.

Hedgehog99

You say you'd lose £2k/mo if first job found out - but is the salary of the seasonal job > £2k/mo?

Why not just ask 1st job if you can take the seasonal one? If they say no, or that they'd reduce your £2k so you'd be worse off, then be glad of the paid time off to be able to line up your next job instead of having to spend every evening doing applications.

getmore4less

My contract states I cannot take another job in this period without their consent.

how likely is it they say no?

might be better to just ask what the boundaries of another job are without mentioning you have something lined up to start with.

maybe ask if volunteering is Ok or part time like pub work at the evening weekends or some short term work odd days or seasonal like a postie for Xmas etc.

Ja7188

If the second job doesn't involve working in a role that could be seen as competing with your previous employer, I honestly can't see why your previous employer would take issue and refuse their consent - assuming that none of the new roles you're looking at could be seen as such, my suggestion would just be to write to them and ask...

What is your actual leaving date (as has been stated or will be stated on your P45)...?

00ec25

Ja7188 wrote: »

If the second job doesn't involve working in a role that could be seen as competing with your previous employer, I honestly can't see why your previous employer would take issue and refuse their consent - assuming that none of the new roles you're looking at could be seen as such, my suggestion would just be to write to them and ask...

What is your actual leaving date (as has been stated or will be stated on your P45)...?

did you read the post?

OP is on gardening leave. That means he is assumed to be sitting at home collecting full salary whilst doing nothing. The employer not unreasonably under those circumstances would not want to pay full salary if OP is at the same time earning an income by working elsewhere

the issue therefore is as the OP asks - how will the employer find out? To which one answer is they will not find out via the taxman.

Ja7188

Fully capable of reading, thanks - and I'd like to ask you whether you've read this thread through yourself, given that the OP has made it very clear that the contract with their employer states that they cannot take other work during the period of gardening leave WITHOUT THEIR CONSENT, as opposed to saying that they cannot take other work AT ALL - hence my suggestion to simply ask.

Even if the old employer doesn't find out via the taxman, there is surely a chance that they will find out when the new/ temporary employer approaches them for a reference - so it may well be better to be upfront.

I don't doubt that they could legitimately refuse such consent - it doesn't necessarily mean they will choose to do so - and if they weren't prepared to consider such requests, why would they include the words 'without consent' in the contract (as opposed to simply stating that the OP cannot work anywhere else at all for the period in question)...?

chrismac1

"Take another job."

It would be nice to see exactly how this clause is worded. Supposing you did this other contract via a limited company, and took no PAYE salary for the next 3 months ,just dividends

Then unless the clause specicially excludes this, you have not "taken another job" and have no paid employment during the 3 month period. Sorted!

LordMattrick

Many thanks for your reply and for understanding my point - can I ask how you can be sure my 1st Job couldn't find out about a 2nd job via the tax office? And is there any other way you know of that they could find out?
The two jobs are totally different industries if you needed to know so they won't find out via any sort of grapevine.

agrinnall

chrismac1 wrote: »

"Take another job."

It would be nice to see exactly how this clause is worded. Supposing you did this other contract via a limited company, and took no PAYE salary for the next 3 months ,just dividends

Then unless the clause specicially excludes this, you have not "taken another job" and have no paid employment during the 3 month period. Sorted!

Except that if the OP's current employer decided to recall him to work during his notice period then his limited company would need to find somebedy else to undetake the contract that it had agreed to do.