Gardening Leave UK Explained: Pay, Rights and What You Can Do

Gardening leave is one of those workplace terms that sounds almost pleasant given what it usually means in practice. Being placed on gardening leave typically happens when an employer wants you to stop working immediately but still needs to fulfil your notice period before you can leave and join a competitor or start your own business. You stay at home, often without access to company systems, but you remain an employee and you continue to be paid until your notice period ends.

It is most common in industries where an employee's departure to a competitor could cause immediate commercial damage, such as financial services, technology, law, sales, and senior management roles. But gardening leave is increasingly being used in a wider range of employment situations, and understanding exactly what it means for your rights and your next career move is important if you find yourself in this position. Use our notice period calculator to work out how long your notice period should legally be.

What gardening leave actually means legally

Gardening leave is not a legal term in UK employment legislation. It is a contractual arrangement that an employer uses to keep an employee away from the business during their notice period while continuing to pay them. The employee remains employed, continues to receive full salary and contractual benefits, and retains all employment rights including holiday accrual and pension contributions. The only difference from working your notice is that you are not actually working.

The right to place someone on gardening leave is not automatic. It must either be explicitly set out in the employment contract, or the employee must agree to it. An employer who simply tells a senior employee to go home and not return without a contractual right to do so could be in breach of contract, particularly if the employee's contract includes an express right to work or if their role is such that working is inherent to their position. Courts have found that senior executives and commission-based salespeople may have a right to work rather than simply a right to be paid, making contractual authority to impose gardening leave important.

When employers use gardening leave

Employers choose gardening leave over asking an employee to work their notice for several reasons. The primary concern is usually protecting confidential information and client relationships. An employee who is about to leave for a competitor has diminished loyalty and access to sensitive data, client contacts, and business strategy. Requiring them to serve notice at home removes the risk of them using that notice period to build relationships, download data, or undermine ongoing projects.

Gardening leave is also used to enforce non-compete and non-solicitation clauses. These restrictive covenants in employment contracts are only enforceable if they protect a legitimate business interest and are reasonable in scope and duration. Courts are more likely to enforce a three-month non-compete clause where the employer has already paid the employee for three months of gardening leave, because the commercial justification is clearer and the employee has been compensated for the restriction on their activities.

Your pay rights during gardening leave

While on gardening leave you remain an employee and are entitled to full pay and all contractual benefits. Your salary continues to be paid as normal, and your employer must continue making pension contributions, providing health insurance if that is a contractual benefit, and fulfilling any other employment contract obligations. This continues for the entire duration of the gardening leave period regardless of whether you sit at home doing nothing.

Bonuses and commission are more complicated. If a bonus would otherwise have been payable during the gardening leave period and your contract does not specifically exclude employees on gardening leave from eligibility, you may be entitled to it. This has been litigated extensively and the outcome depends heavily on the specific bonus scheme wording. Commission that relates to sales you made before being placed on gardening leave is generally still payable. Commission on sales that would have happened during the notice period but did not because you were not working is less clear and depends on your contract.

Holiday entitlement and accrual

Holiday continues to accrue throughout gardening leave because you remain employed. Your employer can require you to take some or all of your outstanding annual leave during the gardening leave period by giving appropriate notice, which is typically double the length of the leave period they want you to take. So if they want you to take two weeks of holiday during a two-month gardening leave, they need to give you at least two weeks notice of that requirement.

Any holiday you have accrued but not taken by the end of your employment must be paid out on termination, assuming your employer has not required you to take it during the gardening leave period. If your gardening leave period is long and your holiday year has reset part way through, you may find that your accrued holiday entitlement at the termination date is quite small. Our holiday entitlement calculator shows how holiday accrues on a pro-rata basis throughout the year.

Can you work for someone else during gardening leave

This is the question most people ask first. The short answer is that you cannot start employment with a competitor while on gardening leave and employed by your current employer, because your duty of fidelity and any explicit contractual restrictions prevent it. Working for a competitor during your notice period, even from home, would be a breach of contract and could justify your employer terminating your employment for cause, potentially removing entitlement to remaining notice pay.

You may be able to undertake work that does not compete with your employer. Freelance work in an unrelated field, writing, consultancy outside your industry, or part-time work that your employment contract does not prohibit may be acceptable depending on the specific wording of your contract. Checking your contract carefully and taking advice before doing any paid work during gardening leave is wise, particularly if your employer has included explicit secondary employment restrictions.

Once the gardening leave period ends and you are no longer employed, you are in principle free to start work elsewhere unless post-termination restrictive covenants apply. Even then, these covenants are only enforceable if they are reasonable, which is assessed case by case. A six-month non-compete for a junior employee with no specialist knowledge is likely unenforceable. The same restriction for a managing director with unique client relationships may well be upheld.

Gardening leave vs payment in lieu of notice

Gardening leave and payment in lieu of notice (PILON) are different arrangements with important practical differences. On gardening leave you remain employed throughout the notice period and all employment protections continue. With PILON your employment terminates immediately and you receive a lump sum representing your notice pay. The key distinction is that on gardening leave your notice period actually runs, whereas with PILON the employment ends at the point of payment.

This matters for restrictive covenants. A post-termination restriction starts running from the date employment ends. If your employer accepts PILON, your restrictions start immediately. If you serve notice on gardening leave, the restrictions only begin after the notice period. From the employer's perspective, gardening leave actually extends the effective period of restriction, which is one reason it is preferred for senior roles with long notice periods and strong non-compete clauses.

What if your employer breaches the agreement

If your employer fails to pay you during gardening leave, or stops payment before the notice period ends, that is a breach of contract. You are entitled to pursue the unpaid wages through an employment tribunal or the civil courts. In practice, employers very rarely fail to pay during gardening leave since the purpose of the arrangement is to keep you onside and avoid claims, but errors do occur particularly with variable pay elements such as bonuses and commission.

If your employer materially breaches the gardening leave arrangement, for example by failing to pay you or by demanding you work against the terms of the agreement, you may be entitled to treat yourself as released from any post-termination restrictions. Courts have sometimes accepted this argument, which is why employers generally take their payment obligations seriously throughout the gardening leave period. If you find yourself in dispute, our notice period calculator can help you establish the correct notice entitlement as a starting point for understanding what you are owed.