Garden leave: what it means and what your rights are

What is garden leave?

Garden leave, sometimes called gardening leave, is when your employer requires you to stay away from work during your notice period while you remain employed and on full pay. You keep your salary and contractual benefits and stay bound by your duties, including confidentiality and not competing with or soliciting clients or staff. Employers use it most often with senior or client-facing staff, to keep them away from clients, colleagues and confidential information before they join a competitor. The name comes from the (rarely literal) idea that an employee sent home with nothing to do might as well tend the garden.

What are the garden leave rules and do I still get paid?

Yes, you are paid as normal throughout, including salary, pension contributions and any other contractual benefits, because you remain an employee until your notice period ends. In return, you are usually expected to remain available to your employer, keep confidential information confidential, and not work for anyone else or approach clients and colleagues, even though you are not attending the workplace. Use our settlement calculator if garden leave forms part of a wider exit package you are weighing up.

Do I need a garden leave clause in my contract?

Usually yes. An employer generally needs an express garden leave clause in your contract to enforce it. Without one, requiring you to stay away from work rather than let you actually work your notice can, in some cases, amount to a breach of contract, particularly in roles where the right to work matters, such as where pay is commission-based or where working is important to maintaining skills or profile. If your contract has no garden leave clause and your employer is insisting on it anyway, that is worth raising, ideally alongside a review of your settlement agreement if one is on the table.

Garden leave vs pay in lieu of notice (PILON)

The two are often confused but work differently. On garden leave, your employment continues and you are paid as usual through the whole notice period, remaining bound by your contract until it ends. With PILON, your employment ends immediately and you are paid a lump sum covering your notice instead of working it. Garden leave keeps you tied to the business, and its restrictions, for longer; PILON gives you a clean break sooner. See our PILON guide and our guide to notice periods for more detail.

Can I start a new job while on garden leave?

Generally no, not until your notice period ends. You are still employed and bound by your existing contract during garden leave, so starting work for a new employer in the meantime is normally a breach of contract. Restrictive covenants, such as non-compete or non-solicitation clauses, can also still apply once garden leave finishes, although time spent on garden leave may count towards reducing their effective length depending on how your contract is drafted. Check the wording carefully, or have it checked, before agreeing a start date with a new employer.

Can you be put on garden leave during redundancy?

Yes. An employer can place you on garden leave during a redundancy notice period in exactly the same way as any other notice period, provided your contract has a garden leave clause. You remain employed and fully paid, including any redundancy pay still to be calculated at your termination date, while being asked to stay away from work. It is common where an employer wants a departing employee away from clients, systems or colleagues during a restructure, and it does not change your entitlement to statutory or enhanced redundancy pay.

What should a garden leave clause say?

A well-drafted garden leave clause should state that your employer can require you to stay away from work during some or all of your notice, confirm you remain employed and paid throughout, and set out which duties continue, such as confidentiality, exclusivity and not approaching clients or colleagues. It typically also gives the employer discretion over how much of the notice period is spent on garden leave versus working normally, and should be read alongside any restrictive covenants that apply after employment ends.

Holiday, bonus and benefits on garden leave

Because you remain employed throughout garden leave, your contractual benefits, pension contributions and holiday entitlement normally continue to accrue as usual, and any bonus scheme rules keep applying unless your contract says otherwise. Whether a bonus becomes payable during garden leave often turns on the exact wording of the scheme, including any requirement to be "actively employed" or not under notice on the payment date, so check your bonus rules or have them checked alongside your contract.

How garden leave affects a settlement figure

Garden leave itself is not usually a separate item you are compensated for, since you are already being paid as normal throughout it. What it can affect is timing and leverage: a longer garden leave period delays your final termination date, which can push back when a settlement figure is calculated and paid, and being kept away from work for an extended period is sometimes a point employers will negotiate on if you would prefer PILON and a clean break instead. Use our settlement agreement calculator to see how the different elements of a package add up.

Garden leave and restrictive covenants

Garden leave and restrictive covenants both restrict what you can do after leaving a role, but they work differently and can interact. Garden leave applies while you are still employed and paid; restrictive covenants, such as non-compete or non-solicitation clauses, take over once employment actually ends. Some contracts let time spent on garden leave count towards, or reduce, the length of a covenant that follows, so the two are often negotiated together. See our restrictive covenants guide for how these clauses are usually drafted and where they can be challenged.

Garden leave: frequently asked questions