What your employment contract should say
If your contracts don’t address secondary employment at all, you’re working without a net. Standard provisions worth including are: a requirement to disclose other paid work (and in some cases seek permission); restrictions on working for competitors or clients of the business; confidentiality and intellectual property protections; and an expectation that other work won’t affect the employee’s performance, availability or obligations to you.
Confidentiality and intellectual property clauses deserve particular attention. An employee who also works for a competitor, or who is building their own business in the same space, creates real risk around proprietary information, client relationships and business data. Your contract should make clear what confidentiality obligations extend beyond employment hours and what constitutes a conflict of interest.
Working Time Regulations risks
This is where many employers underestimate their exposure. Under ACAS guidance on working hours, the 48-hour maximum working week under the Working Time Regulations applies to an employee’s total working time across all employers. If your employee is working 40 hours for you and 20 hours elsewhere, they may be in breach, and so might you if you were aware of it.
The practical protection is a signed 48-hour opt-out agreement, which employees can agree to voluntarily but can withdraw from with notice. Even with an opt-out in place, employees retain the right to minimum rest periods. If you don’t have opt-out agreements in place for employees in roles where long hours are common, it’s worth reviewing this.
When performance becomes an issue
If an employee’s performance or attendance is suffering and you suspect a second job is a contributing factor, your usual performance management process applies. The fact that a second job may be the cause doesn’t change your obligations or theirs. You’re not managing the second job. You’re managing the impact on their work for you.
Where you have a contractual requirement to disclose secondary employment and the employee hasn’t done so, that creates a disciplinary issue in its own right, depending on the nature of the work and any conflict it creates. Handle it through your normal disciplinary process, with proper investigation and a fair procedure.
The Employment Rights Act 2025 angle
The Employment Rights Act 2025 introduces new rights for workers on zero hours or low-guaranteed-hours contracts, including a right to be offered guaranteed hours that reflect their regular working pattern. This has a knock-on effect on secondary employment. Workers who currently rely on flexible arrangements across multiple employers may find their situation changes as these provisions come into force.
If your business uses zero hours or flexible contracts, review how the new rules affect your workforce and whether any of your current arrangements will need to change. Taking advice now is significantly easier than managing the consequences after the fact.
What you should do now
- Review your employment contracts. Do they include clear secondary employment provisions covering disclosure, confidentiality and conflicts of interest?
- Check whether you have 48-hour opt-out agreements in place for relevant employees.
- Consider whether your current approach to conflicts of interest is clearly defined and communicated.
- If you have zero hours or flexible workers, take advice on how the Employment Rights Act 2025 changes affect your arrangements.
- If you’re aware of an employee working a second job and have concerns, don’t wait. Address it through your standard process before it becomes a bigger problem.
How Limelite can help
Whether you need your employment contracts reviewed and updated, advice on a specific situation involving a second job, or support building policies that protect your business, our team works with organisations across Worcestershire, Birmingham and the wider UK to get the people stuff right.
Find out more about our retained HR and consultancy services or our HR project support for one-off contract and policy reviews. Book a free 30-minute discovery call to talk it through.
Book a free 30-minute discovery call
About the author
Helen Scullion Assoc. CIPD, HR Client Manager at Limelite HR & Learning. Helen supports organisations with day-to-day HR management, employee relations and practical people support. Connect with Helen on LinkedIn.
