Garden Leave

Question 1

Garden leave clauses allow the employer to specify that an employee must serve their contractual notice period at home, on full pay and benefits.

Answer 1

The purpose is to prevent an employee from gaining important or sensitive knowledge.

Question 2

What can an employer do to enforce a garden leave clause?

Answer 2

They can obtain an injunction to prevent the person coming into work.

Question 3

There should be an express term in the contract stating that an employee can be put on garden leave

(William Hill Organisation Ltd v Tucker (1998))

Answer 3

An employer can require a person to be on garden leave, and still enforce a restrictive covenant after they have left employment.

In some cases, the courts have taken the existence of the garden leave clause into account when determining the validity of the restrictive covenant

(Credit Suisse Asset Management Ltd v Armstrong (1996))