What Is Garden Leave in Hong Kong? Meaning, Pay and How It Works

If you are placed on garden leave in Hong Kong, you normally remain employed and continue receiving your salary while being told not to attend the workplace or perform some or all of your normal duties during the notice period. You may also lose access to clients, company systems and commercially sensitive information, while remaining bound by your employment contract.

The most important point is that garden leave is not a separate statutory form of leave created by the Hong Kong Employment Ordinance. It is primarily a contractual arrangement. Your employment contract, notice provisions, remuneration terms and any restrictions on outside work therefore matter considerably. An express garden leave clause gives an employer the clearest contractual basis for using it; without one, imposing garden leave can become more fact-sensitive, particularly where preventing you from working affects professional reputation, skills or commission-earning opportunities.

For employees, the practical solution is simple: do not treat garden leave as an extended holiday. Check the written garden leave instruction against your contract, confirm your final employment date, establish what salary and benefits continue, and understand exactly what you are prohibited from doing before joining another employer.

What Is Garden Leave and What Does It Mean?

So, what is garden leave? In practical terms, it is a period after notice of termination has been given but before employment actually ends. Instead of continuing your normal job throughout the notice period, your employer instructs you to remain away from the workplace or reduces your duties while continuing the employment relationship.

The simplest garden leave meaning is therefore: you stop doing most or all of your normal work, but you have not yet left the company.

This creates an important middle ground. Your employer can separate you from current commercial activity without terminating the employment immediately. You continue to receive contractual remuneration, while the employer reduces the risk that you will see new confidential information, influence clients or colleagues, or take part in projects immediately before moving to a competitor.

In Hong Kong employment practice, garden leave commonly means that a departing employee is instructed to stay away from work during the notice period while continuing to receive wages. The employee generally remains subject to ongoing contractual obligations, including restrictions on working elsewhere and duties relating to confidential information.

Garden leave is particularly relevant to senior or commercially sensitive roles. You are more likely to encounter it if you work in financial services, investment management, technology, professional services, senior sales, consulting or another position where client relationships, strategic information or business pipelines can change quickly.

That does not mean garden leave is automatically enforceable merely because your job is senior. The contract still matters. A carefully drafted clause will normally explain when garden leave can be imposed, whether the employer can remove duties, whether you must remain available, whether you can contact customers or employees and what happens to remuneration and benefits.

Are You Still an Employee During Garden Leave?

Yes. The defining feature of garden leave is that the employment relationship normally continues until the contractual termination date.

You may no longer have a desk, system access or active projects, but that does not mean you have already left the company. Your resignation date, last day physically working and legal termination date can therefore be three different dates.

For example, suppose you resign on 1 September 2026 with a three-month contractual notice period. Your employer asks you to complete handover for two weeks and then places you on garden leave for the balance. Your last day performing ordinary duties may be in September, but your employment can continue until the end of the relevant notice period.

While employment continues, you normally remain subject to relevant contractual duties. Depending on the wording, these can include:

• confidentiality obligations;
• a duty not to work for another employer;
• restrictions on contacting customers or suppliers;
• restrictions on soliciting employees;
• requirements to return or stop using company information;
• requirements to remain available during normal working hours;
• handover or transition obligations; and
• other lawful contractual directions.

This distinction is particularly important if your next employer wants you to start immediately. Your final day in the office is not automatically your final employment date. Starting work for another employer before the existing employment ends may expose you to breach-of-contract risk if your obligations prohibit it.

Why Do Employers Use Garden Leave?

From an HR perspective, paying someone not to perform their normal job can initially look inefficient. The commercial logic becomes clearer when the employee has access to information or relationships that could quickly benefit a competitor.

An employer may use garden leave to:

• prevent access to new confidential or commercially sensitive information;
• separate the employee from live deals or transactions;
• reduce direct contact with clients before departure;
• lower the risk of clients being moved to a competitor;
• limit active solicitation of colleagues;
• allow client relationships to transition to another employee;
• complete an orderly handover;
• reduce disruption following the resignation of a senior employee; and
• create a gap between the employee’s last active involvement in the business and the date they can join a competitor.

The underlying logic is often about the useful life of information. A sales pipeline, pricing strategy, product launch plan or client negotiation can be extremely valuable today but much less valuable several months later. Keeping a departing employee away from current information during their notice period allows some of that knowledge to become less commercially sensitive before they enter the market again.

It can also help the employer rebuild relationships. If a senior relationship manager goes on garden leave, the business has time to introduce another employee to key clients before the departing individual joins a rival.

A 2026 Hong Kong case also illustrates the relationship between garden leave and post-termination protections. Senior employees had served their notice on garden leave before litigation concerning non-solicitation and non-dealing restrictions. The practical point is that garden leave and restrictive covenants are related tools, but they are not interchangeable: one applies while employment continues, while the other may seek to restrict conduct after termination.

How Long Can Garden Leave Last?

There is no statutory rule saying that Hong Kong garden leave must last 30 days, three months or six months. The period usually derives from the contractual notice period and the employer’s garden leave clause.

In practice, the employer may place you on garden leave for all or only part of the notice period. A three-month notice period does not necessarily mean three full months of garden leave. You may work for several weeks to complete a handover and spend only the remaining period away from active duties.

Current Hong Kong employment guidance commonly describes one to six months as a range seen in roles where garden leave is used, with longer arrangements possible for particularly senior positions. That is a market observation, not a statutory entitlement or statutory maximum. An unusually long restriction can raise questions about contractual enforceability and restraint of trade.

Employment Stage	If Contract States Notice	If Contract Is Silent	Relevance to Garden Leave
First month of probation	No notice required	No notice required	There may be no statutory notice period in which garden leave needs to operate.
After first month of probation	Agreed period, but not less than 7 days	Not less than 7 days	Garden leave would normally sit within the applicable notice period, subject to contractual wording.
No probation or probation completed under a continuous contract	Agreed period, but not less than 7 days	Not less than 1 month	A longer contractual notice period can provide a longer possible garden leave window.
No probation or probation completed under a non-continuous contract	Agreed period	Contract-specific	Review the actual termination provisions before assuming a garden leave period.

The statutory figures above concern notice periods rather than a statutory garden leave entitlement. For a continuous contract after probation, where the contract specifies a notice period, the agreed period applies subject to the statutory minimum of 7 days. If the contract does not specify a notice period, the minimum is generally one month.

A senior executive may therefore have a three-month or six-month notice period because the employment contract provides for it, not because Hong Kong law automatically gives senior employees longer notice.

How Does Garden Leave Work?

There is no single standard garden leave process used by every Hong Kong employer. What happens depends heavily on the employment contract and the employer’s reason for invoking the clause. Still, the practical sequence is often similar.

• Notice of termination is given. Either you resign or the employer terminates the contract with notice.
• The employer reviews its contractual rights. HR or legal counsel checks whether the employment agreement allows the company to place you on garden leave, remove duties or restrict access.
• You receive a written garden leave instruction. A well-managed process should state when garden leave begins, when employment is expected to terminate and what you are required to do during the period.
• Your handover may be completed first. Garden leave does not always begin immediately. The employer may ask you to transfer projects, introduce a successor or document key responsibilities.
• Workplace access may be removed. Your building pass, laptop access, email, CRM account, shared drives or other systems may be disabled.
• Client and colleague contact may be restricted. The instruction may specify people you should not contact in a business capacity.
• You normally stop performing ordinary duties. Some clauses allow the employer to require no work at all; others allow limited work, transition support or occasional consultation.
• You remain employed. Salary and contractual benefits normally continue because the employment relationship has not yet ended.
• You remain bound by ongoing obligations. Confidentiality, loyalty, data protection and restrictions on outside employment may continue to apply.
• You may need to remain contactable. Being at home does not necessarily mean being unavailable. Your contract or garden leave letter may require you to answer reasonable questions or assist with handover.
• You should not assume you can start your next job. Until employment ends, another employment relationship may conflict with your contractual obligations.
• Employment ends on the agreed termination date. At that point garden leave ends because the existing employment relationship has ended.
• Post-termination restrictions may then become relevant. Non-compete, non-solicitation, non-dealing or confidentiality provisions need to be reviewed separately.

An express contractual clause is the cleanest basis for the arrangement. Without one, the employer’s ability to exclude you from work can become more complicated. Hong Kong employment guidance recognises that there can be a common-law right to work in some circumstances, especially where an employee’s skills, professional reputation or commission income depend on actively carrying out the role.

This is why an employer should not simply send someone home and assume that continued base salary makes every problem disappear. Contract drafting, remuneration structure and the nature of the job all matter.

Garden Leave vs Notice Period: What’s the Difference?

Garden leave and a notice period are not opposites. Garden leave is usually one way in which some or all of a notice period is served.

During an ordinary worked notice period, you remain employed and continue doing your job. During garden leave, you also remain employed, but you are instructed not to carry out some or all of your normal duties.

Point	Garden Leave	Ordinary Worked Notice Period	Why It Matters
Employment status	Employment continues until termination date	Employment continues until termination date	Neither normally ends employment immediately.
Normal duties	You may be told not to attend work or perform normal duties	You normally continue working	This is the central operational difference.
Salary and contractual benefits	Normally continue while employment remains in force	Normally continue during worked notice	Variable pay and equity may need separate review.
Client and system access	Often restricted or removed	Usually continues as necessary for the job	Garden leave can protect sensitive information and relationships.
Working for another employer	Normally restricted while you remain employed	Normally restricted by ongoing employment obligations	Your last working day is not automatically your termination date.
Legal basis	Primarily contractual	Notice requirements arise from the Employment Ordinance plus contract	Garden leave is not a separate statutory leave entitlement.

The position is different again with payment in lieu of notice. Payment in lieu is designed to end the employment without requiring all or part of the notice period to be served. Garden leave does the opposite: it normally keeps the employment relationship alive throughout the relevant notice period.

Under Hong Kong’s Employment Ordinance framework, either party may terminate an employment contract by giving the required notice or by making the applicable payment in lieu of notice. Where a notice period is expressed in months, payment in lieu is calculated using the relevant 12-month average monthly wages multiplied by the number of months concerned; where notice is expressed in days or weeks, the statutory calculation uses average daily wages and the number of normally payable days in the notice period.

That distinction can be commercially important. Suppose you have a three-month notice period:

• If you work three months of notice, you remain employed and perform your duties.
• If you spend three months on garden leave, you remain employed but generally do not perform normal duties.
• If the employment is terminated immediately by payment in lieu of the full notice period, employment ends rather than continuing for the next three months.

Do not therefore describe garden leave as “three months’ salary instead of notice”. That describes payment in lieu more closely than garden leave.

Do You Get Paid During Garden Leave?

Normally, yes. Continuing remuneration is one of the defining features of garden leave.

Because you are still an employee during the notice period, your employer normally continues paying your salary and contractual benefits in accordance with the employment agreement.

However, “full pay” needs careful interpretation when your package contains more than fixed monthly salary.

Your base salary is usually the simplest component. If you earn a fixed HK$80,000 per month and remain employed for three full months of garden leave, the fixed salary attributable to that period would ordinarily be HK$240,000, assuming the contractual salary does not change.

Contractual fixed allowances may also continue if the contract provides for them while you remain employed. But commission, discretionary bonuses, equity awards, expense reimbursements and other variable elements may operate under separate contractual or scheme rules.

Item	Illustrative Assumption	Illustrative Amount	What You Should Check
Monthly fixed salary	HK$80,000 per month	HK$80,000	Your actual contractual salary
Garden leave period	3 months	3 months	Contractual notice and garden leave dates
Fixed salary over garden leave	HK$80,000 × 3	HK$240,000	Whether fixed salary remains unchanged
Fixed contractual allowance	HK$5,000 per month × 3	HK$15,000	Whether the allowance remains payable
Illustrative fixed cash remuneration	HK$240,000 + HK$15,000	HK$255,000	Excludes discretionary bonus, commission, equity and expenses

This example illustrates ongoing contractual pay; it is not a statutory garden leave formula.

That matters because payment in lieu of notice uses a different statutory framework. The Labour Department’s payment-in-lieu calculation uses the applicable 12-month average wage rules rather than simply assuming that one month of notice always equals one month’s current basic salary.

Bonus treatment deserves particular attention. A bonus can be guaranteed, formula-based, contractual but conditional, or fully discretionary. Some schemes require you to remain actively employed on the payment date; others contain specific treatment for employees serving notice or on garden leave. Do not assume that garden leave automatically cancels a bonus, but equally do not assume that every anticipated bonus must be paid.

Commission can be even more sensitive. If your role earns commission from active sales, preventing you from working may affect the opportunity to earn it. This is one reason the existence and drafting of an express garden leave clause can matter significantly in commission-heavy roles.

You should therefore ask HR to confirm the treatment of:

• base salary;
• fixed allowances;
• contractual commission already earned;
• future commission opportunities;
• guaranteed or discretionary bonuses;
• sales incentives;
• share awards or options;
• medical insurance;
• retirement or MPF arrangements;
• company car or transport benefits;
• telephone or technology allowances; and
• other benefits dependent on active duties.

Do not rely solely on a manager saying, “You will still be paid.” Ask what that means for each material component of your package.

What Should Employees Check Before Going on Garden Leave?

If HR tells you that you are being placed on garden leave, you do not need to treat the conversation as automatically hostile. In many senior departures it is a routine risk-management step. You should, however, review the arrangement carefully before making commitments to a future employer or assuming you are free from your existing obligations.

• Check whether your contract contains a garden leave clause. Look for wording allowing the employer to exclude you from the workplace, remove your duties or require you not to contact clients during notice.
• Confirm who gave notice. Establish whether the arrangement follows your resignation or the employer’s termination notice, because other termination rights can depend on the facts.
• Confirm your legal termination date. Do not use the day you hand back your laptop as your assumed employment end date.
• Check the notice period carefully. A period expressed as one month should not automatically be treated as exactly 30 days. Hong Kong’s statutory notice rules distinguish periods expressed in days and periods expressed in months.
• Ask whether garden leave covers all or only part of the notice period. You may need to complete handover first.
• Check what duties remain. You may be required to answer questions, provide information or complete specified transition work.
• Check availability requirements. If the contract says you must remain contactable during business hours, planning an extended overseas trip without permission can create difficulties.
• Confirm base salary. Make sure payroll will continue at the agreed contractual rate.
• Review allowances and benefits. Ask which benefits continue until termination.
• Read your bonus plan. Look for clauses dealing with resignation, notice, active service and garden leave.
• Read your commission plan. Determine what happens to business already generated and commissions that have not yet become payable.
• Check share or equity documents separately. Equity plans often contain their own leaver provisions.
• Review restrictions on outside employment. Do not assume you can freelance, consult or start your new role simply because you are not attending your existing workplace.
• Review confidentiality obligations. Garden leave does not give you permission to retain customer lists, strategy documents, pricing information or files.
• Check client-contact restrictions. A friendly call to a client can still create problems if your contract or garden leave letter prohibits business contact.
• Check restrictions on colleagues. You may be prohibited from encouraging employees to leave or discussing future employment arrangements with them.
• Return company property when requested. This can include laptops, access cards, documents, storage devices and confidential materials.
• Clarify annual leave separately. Garden leave and annual leave are not the same thing. Do not assume garden leave automatically uses up your outstanding annual leave.
• Review any post-termination restrictions. A non-compete or non-solicitation provision may start after employment terminates rather than when garden leave starts.
• Check whether the contract offsets garden leave against restrictive covenants. Some contracts reduce a post-termination restriction by time already spent on garden leave; others require careful legal analysis.
• Give your next employer the correct start date. Your offer should not require you to breach your current employment contract.
• Keep the written garden leave letter. It should become part of your personal termination records.
• Raise discrepancies promptly. If salary or a contractual benefit suddenly stops, ask HR for the contractual basis rather than waiting until the final payroll.

For employers, the same checklist works in reverse. The employment contract, staff handbook, garden leave letter, payroll treatment and post-termination restrictions should tell a consistent story.

That is particularly important because Hong Kong law distinguishes garden leave from statutory suspension. Statutory suspension under section 11 of the Employment Ordinance is a separate mechanism used only in specified situations and can involve suspension without pay. Garden leave, by contrast, normally operates after notice has been given and keeps the employment relationship and remuneration in place.

Mixing these concepts can produce avoidable disputes. If the commercial objective is simply to keep a departing senior employee away from clients during notice, the employer should not casually describe the arrangement as disciplinary suspension.

FAQ

1. Can I start a new job while on garden leave?

Usually not unless your existing employer agrees or your contract permits it. You remain employed during garden leave and are normally still bound by restrictions on working for another employer, particularly a competitor.

Do not rely on the fact that you are no longer attending the office. Your contractual termination date is the critical date.

2. Can I ask my employer for garden leave?

Yes, you can ask, but you do not automatically have a statutory right to demand it. Garden leave is mainly contractual, so whether the employer agrees will depend on the contract and commercial circumstances.

An employer may prefer you to work your notice because it needs a handover. Alternatively, it may decide that removing your access immediately better protects the business.

3. Can my employer force me to take garden leave?

An express garden leave clause gives the employer the clearest basis to require it. Without express wording, the position is more complicated. Preventing an employee from working can be challenged in some circumstances, particularly where there is a recognised interest in continuing to work, such as maintaining professional skills, reputation or commission opportunities.

If the contract does not clearly deal with garden leave and the arrangement materially affects your remuneration or career, obtaining specific legal advice may be appropriate.

4. Can I travel while on garden leave?

Possibly, but do not assume garden leave is unrestricted holiday. Check whether the contract or garden leave letter requires you to remain available during normal working hours, attend meetings, provide handover assistance or obtain approval before travelling.

If you want an actual holiday during the period, ask how annual leave should be recorded rather than treating garden leave and annual leave as interchangeable.

5. Can my employer ask me to work during garden leave?

Potentially, yes, depending on the contractual wording. Some garden leave clauses allow the employer to give the employee occasional work or request assistance, even though ordinary duties have stopped.

This is why your written instruction should explain whether you are completely relieved of duties or simply removed from ordinary day-to-day activity.

6. Does garden leave use my annual leave balance?

Not automatically. Garden leave and statutory annual leave are different concepts.

If you are resigning and want to take statutory annual leave during your notice period, Hong Kong’s rules contain specific considerations. Individual circumstances and contractual arrangements can affect how outstanding annual leave is handled.

Ask HR to show separately how garden leave and outstanding annual leave are recorded.

7. Can I end garden leave early by paying in lieu of notice?

Hong Kong’s Employment Ordinance provides a statutory framework allowing either employer or employee to terminate by giving notice or making the relevant payment in lieu of notice. The exact amount and timing should be checked carefully before taking action.

If you want to join another employer earlier, do not simply start the new job and argue about notice afterwards. Confirm the payment-in-lieu position and effective termination date first.

8. Is garden leave the same as payment in lieu of notice?

No. This is one of the most important distinctions.

On garden leave, you remain employed during the relevant notice period and normally continue receiving salary and benefits.

With payment in lieu of notice, the employment relationship is brought to an end rather than requiring the notice period to continue in the ordinary way.

9. Do I receive my bonus while on garden leave?

It depends on the bonus terms. Base salary continuing does not automatically answer the bonus question.

Review whether the bonus is guaranteed or discretionary, whether there is an active-service condition, whether resignation affects eligibility and whether the plan specifically addresses employees on notice or garden leave.

If a large bonus forms part of your expected remuneration, ask for the employer’s position in writing.

10. Can garden leave be followed by a non-compete period?

Yes, if the employment contract contains a separate post-termination restriction, but enforceability is a different legal question.

Hong Kong courts assess restrictive covenants carefully. The employer generally needs a legitimate business interest and a restriction that goes no further than reasonably necessary. The total period in which the employee is kept out of the market, including time already spent on garden leave, can become relevant when reasonableness is considered.

That is why well-drafted senior contracts often address how garden leave interacts with later restrictions instead of treating the two periods independently.

11. What is the simplest garden leave meaning for employees?

The simplest answer is: you are still employed and normally still paid, but your employer has removed you from some or all active work during the notice period.

You should therefore treat garden leave as employment without ordinary day-to-day duties, not as unemployment and not as an unrestricted paid holiday.