Gardening Leave

A 'garden leave' clause in a contract of employment provides the employer with the right to require an employee not to attend work or to perform all or any of his or her duties during his or her notice period. The benefit of such a clause are:

• It enables the employer to remove the employee from the workplace (and therefore away from potentially sensitive information about the business and/or its customers) without a potential claim for constructive dismissal;
• It prevents the employee from taking up employment (potentially with a competitor) until the expiry of his or her notice period;
• It allows the passage of time to diminish the relevance and currency of the knowledge the employee has about the employer's business and customers.