Garden Leave Clauses: How to Draft and Enforce Them in the UK

Garden leave is one of the most effective tools UK employers have for protecting their business when senior or sensitive employees resign. By requiring the employee to stay at home during their notice period while remaining employed and paid, you prevent them from joining a competitor, accessing confidential information, or soliciting clients during the transition — without needing to enforce a separate restrictive covenant.

This guide explains how garden leave works, how to draft a clause that will hold up legally, and the practical considerations for managing the process.

What is garden leave?

Garden leave is a period during an employee's notice period where the employer instructs them not to attend work or perform their duties, while continuing to pay their salary and maintain all contractual benefits. The employee remains bound by their employment contract, including duties of fidelity, confidentiality, and exclusivity.

The term comes from the idea that the employee has nothing to do but tend their garden. In practice, it serves as a buffer period that protects the employer's interests while the employee transitions out.

Why garden leave matters

The primary purposes of garden leave are protecting client relationships by preventing the departing employee from contacting clients before they leave, protecting confidential information by cutting off access to systems, data, and strategic plans, preventing competitive harm by stopping the employee from starting work with a competitor immediately, and allowing a clean transition by giving you time to reassign accounts, projects, and relationships.

For senior employees in sales, finance, technology, or any role with access to commercially sensitive information, garden leave can be worth significantly more than a post-termination restrictive covenant because it is far easier to enforce.

Drafting an enforceable garden leave clause

Unlike restrictive covenants, there is no strict common law test for the enforceability of garden leave. However, you do need a contractual right to place someone on garden leave. Without an express clause, instructing an employee not to work could breach the implied duty to provide work, particularly for senior employees who have a legitimate interest in maintaining their skills and professional standing.

Essential elements of the clause

Your garden leave clause should include an express right for the employer to require the employee to remain away from the workplace during all or part of their notice period. It should state that salary, benefits, and pension contributions will continue during the garden leave period. The clause must confirm that all employment obligations remain in force, including confidentiality, fidelity, and exclusivity. It should give the employer the right to exclude the employee from systems, premises, and client contact. Finally, include the right to require the employee to return all company property immediately.

The relationship with notice periods

Garden leave can only last as long as the notice period. If an employee has a 3-month notice period, you can place them on garden leave for up to 3 months. If their notice period is only 1 month, that is the maximum garden leave you can impose.

This is why notice period length matters strategically. For senior hires with access to sensitive information, consider a longer contractual notice period — 3 to 6 months — specifically to enable a meaningful garden leave period if needed.

Can you extend the notice period to extend garden leave?

No. You cannot unilaterally extend a notice period. The notice period is a contractual term agreed at the start of employment or varied by mutual consent. If you want the option of longer garden leave, negotiate it upfront in the employment contract.

Managing the garden leave process

When you decide to place an employee on garden leave, follow this process to protect your position:

Confirm the garden leave in writing immediately, referencing the specific contractual clause. Specify the start and end dates of the garden leave period. Revoke access to all systems, email, internal tools, and premises on the same day. Require the return of all company property including laptop, phone, access cards, and any documents or data. Remind the employee in writing of their ongoing obligations including confidentiality, exclusivity, and the duty not to solicit clients or colleagues. Confirm that salary and benefits will continue as normal throughout the period. Assign a point of contact for any queries during the period.

Garden leave and restrictive covenants

Garden leave and post-termination restrictive covenants can work together, but there is an important interaction. Courts will consider time spent on garden leave when assessing the reasonableness of a subsequent non-compete or non-solicitation covenant. If an employee serves 3 months of garden leave followed by a 6-month non-compete, the court may view the total 9-month restriction as excessive and refuse to enforce the non-compete entirely.

For the fundamentals of employment contract drafting, see our employment contract essentials guide. For managing the broader departure process, our redundancy process guide covers related procedures.

What employees can and cannot do during garden leave

During garden leave, the employee can take pre-booked holidays (which count towards the garden leave period), look for new employment and attend interviews, and exercise any share options or other rights that would normally be available.

They cannot start work for another employer (the duty of exclusivity continues), contact clients or colleagues for business purposes, access company systems or premises, use or disclose confidential information, or solicit staff to join them at a new employer.

Key takeaways

Garden leave is one of your strongest protections when a senior employee leaves, but it only works if you have an express contractual clause in place before the situation arises. Draft the clause into employment contracts from the outset, ensure notice periods are long enough to be meaningful, and consider how garden leave interacts with any post-termination restrictive covenants. When the time comes to invoke it, act on the first day — revoke access, require property return, and confirm everything in writing. Use our Compliance Audit to check whether your current contracts include the right protections.