Secondary employment
A secondary occupation is performed by an employee in addition to their main occupation. The remuneration is called additional earnings.
Secondary employment: Do I have to tell my employer?
This is regulated in most employment contracts. There you will find a clause on secondary employment stating that the employer must agree to your secondary employment.
This means that you only have to report a secondary employment. The employer may then request the following information:
- Number of hours per week
- General working time
- Name of the additional employer
- Type of activity
You therefore do not have to provide your employer with any information about the earnings from your secondary employment.
You should pay attention to this
However, you should consider a few points in advance:
- Comply with the Working Hours Act.
- Do not carry out any competing activities.
- Do not interfere with your main activity.
- Avoid any overlap under social security law.
Secondary employment during illness
If the employee is on sick leave, this often only applies to their main job. If the team member nevertheless pursues their secondary employment during this time, they may be at risk of dismissal. However, the court can then also declare this invalid.
Should this happen, however, the employment relationship at the main job is likely to deteriorate. This is therefore not particularly pleasant for either side and does not promote future cooperation.
For example, the employee has the opportunity to speak openly with their employer about the situation. This will clarify whether carrying out the secondary employment despite having a sick bill is behavior that is contrary to recovery. The team member can therefore obtain the employer’s consent.
One special feature is probably a part-time job that is carried out exclusively from home on a laptop. As this activity can easily be carried out while lying down, it will not have a negative impact on the recovery process.
