News: Contract Law
Employment law training: Firms 'have limited options to prevent moonlighting'
09 March 2009
Companies can only restrict full-time employees from engaging in second jobs in certain circumstances, a commentator asserts, emphasising the importance of employment law training.
According to HRZone.co.uk, interfering with this right outside of these situations contravenes workers' freedoms under the Human Rights Act.
It suggests that individuals working for a competitor in their spare time are breaching an implied duty of fidelity, contravening contract law, and could potentially be dismissed on this basis.
Work for another firm which interferes with their full-time employment, through tiredness or the performance of an unacceptable number of errors, could also be grounds for disciplinary action.
According to the news provider, another problem which could be identified through contract law training is potential breaching of the Working Time Regulations which allow staff to work a maximum of 48 hours a week.
In other employment news, the European court of justice has referred the validity of the UK's compulsory retirement age to the high court, which will need to decide whether the provision has a legitimate aim relating to social policy or employment.
