A row has recently erupted in Parliament regarding MP’s second jobs –https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/explainers-59206904s. It seems many MPs have secondary employment in addition to their main employment of representing their constituents.  This means they are paid by an another employer in addition to receiving their MP salary. This could be either paid employment or self employment.

Potentially having a second job may conflict with the role they are paid to do for the government .  It would seem due process in in place to declare this to their main employer however that information is not readily available to members of the public https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/nov/14/mps-keep-second-job-details-secret-for-years. 

It is important for employers to find out if their employees have secondary employment.  This is to ensure that having another job will not impact on their main employment.  An employee’s responsibility should be to their main employer where their time and attention is dedicated that role for which they receive a salary.  Having a second job may impact on performance and would not be acceptable.  An employer is within their rights to ban secondary employment and this should be declared in an employment contract and staff handbook.

It is important that an employee does not contravene working time legislation which is in place to ensure health and safety.   Working too many hours can impact on health and may lead to sickness absence.  This would add inacceptable costs to a company and would impact on efficiency.

Another problem is the impact on data protection and commercially sensitive information. It is important to include clauses in an employment contract to ensure a company’s assets are protected.

Finding out if an employee has secondary employment is important.  A question about this matter could be asked on an application form or if CVs are used at interview.  A clause should be built into an employment contract so that an employee is required to seek written permission to undertake secondary employment.  In addition consideration should be made to including a secondary employment policy in a staff handbook.  Should an employee ignore the clause in an employment contract and later it is found that they have secondary employment that has impacted on their main role then it is possible to instigate a disciplinary process.