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Can your boss fire you for working a second job?

Can your boss fire you for working a second job?

The average Canadian’s 36-hour workweek offers some wiggle-room for those looking to pick up a side gig. And many do, with more than 950,000 Canadians holding multiple jobs in 2015, the majority of those in health care (184,000), wholesale and retail (132,000) and education (104,000), according to StatsCan.

But taking a second job – or moonlighting as it’s often known – can come at a cost, explains Natalie MacDonald, a founding partner of Rudner MacDonald LLP, a boutique law firm specializing in Canadian Employment Law.

“If the employer has made it clear from the start through a contract that the employee is precluded from taking another job (and) the employee breaches the contract, the employer may have cause to terminate the employee,” explains MacDonald.

She points out that while there’s no sweeping law preventing employees from taking second jobs, on occasion a written contract of employment could include a clearly worded clause restricting that employee’s activities out of the work place.

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“One such type of clause is that the employee is to devote all time and attention to their position in the company and that they are not to compete with the company while employed,” she says.

Unless, of course, they have the explicit written permission of the employer.

“Written contracts are always the best way to go, as they cement the terms and conditions of the employment relationship,” she says. In other words, it’s good to know the boundaries.

But the challenge with moonlighting, or perhaps to put it more succinctly, the challenge of telling your boss you’re moonlighting, is that they may begin to read into how it is affecting your work. On the other hand, if it is affecting your work via fatigue and scheduling, it places an employer well within their rights to let you go.

And similarly, the courts are apt to side with them if they find out you’re working a side gig that could present a conflict of interest.

Take Evan Solomon, the former political pundit and high profile host of CBC’s Power & Politics who failed to inform the top brass he also had his hand in the art brokering business with some of his guests. The host admitted he did not realize it was a conflict but CBC thought otherwise, pushing him out the door.

MacDonald points out that it can be outright dirty where there is a “common law fiduciary duty, which applies to senior management in the company.”

“If the manager is found to be competing with the employer, or depriving the employer of a corporate opportunity, then the employer could have cause to terminate,” she says.

Again, it bolsters the case for speaking with your human resources department or sitting down with your boss and genuinely explaining your situation in order to ensure you’re not stepping on anyone’s toes and that you’re 100 per cent committed to your position with the company.

That assurance, says MacDonald, should be enough.

“As long as the employee is not competing or taking actions which impugn the employer’s reputation and it does not interfere with the employee’s duties and responsibilities, the employee is able to take a second job,” she adds.