Authorisation of additional, outside, work

Many employers consider it important to allow their employees the flexibility to work for other organisations or to pursue their own interests elsewhere. This approach can have a number of benefits: some employees need to sustain more than one employment for financial reasons, others may wish to engage in voluntary work, earn extra money from a hobby or simply do other work to add a different dimension to their lives. Often, employers also gain from this as employees are able to develop skills that they would not normally be able to in a single work environment.

Whilst you cannot easily prevent your employees from undertaking work outside your organisation in their own time, you need to ensure that their activities will not have any adverse effect on your business or their ability to do their work for you. You can include a clause in your contracts which stipulates that employees must not undertake any such activities without your prior written permission. You may then refuse consent to an employee who intends to take on work which is likely to represent a conflict of interest or affect the reputation or integrity of your business. In addition, you can refuse consent if you believe that the employee's performance might be adversely affected, for example by excessive tiredness, although you may wish to give the employee the benefit of the doubt initially and then tackle the issue if you find he/she is unable to cope.

Bear in mind that any work done for another employer will still count towards the employee's working hours under the Working Time Regulations - therefore if the total amount is likely to take the employee over the 48 hour weekly limit, you will need to discuss an opt-out agreement with the employee.

Use the BusinessHR letter to authorise an employee to undertake any additional, outside work.

Features

The authorisation of additional, outside, work letter:

• is easy to use and tailor to the particular circumstances
• protects you by laying down clear guidelines as to what is/is not acceptable
• reminds the employee of his/her obligations under the Working Time Regulations
• gives you the right to withdraw your permission should the employee breach any of the conditions of the agreement.

You may also wish to read our guide to the Working Time Regulations .