you're self employed, though, aren't you? same is true of self employed in UK.

sorry, sometimes I forget about that. I wasn't always self employed and even then I could walk away to the competition without worry.

contracts prevent employers from abusing employees, dismissing them unfairly etc, and ensure that if you do get terminated, you will get notice or pay in lieu, so you know you'll have breathing space to find another job.

how do you imagine a contact prevents you from working when and where you want? Flexitime is more common in the UK, despite contracts. you are no more or no lessfree to have more than one employer than you are here. If your first employer doesn't like you 'moonlighting" here, they can just fire yiou. In UK, they canonly fire you if it's written in your contract.

edited to note this was written before your last post, so is not so relevant now

But if you have a contract and you want to quit, that's not immediately feasible, is it? I'm not sure about the legality of firing you for moonlighting here anyway, unless you were moonlighting with a directly competing company--and even then, most employers make you sign "non-compete" clauses to make sure it's nice and clear that they don't want you doing that. Non-related industries, I don't think they could get away with it without getting sued.

They don't have to directly terminate you. You may experience a loss in some hours, maybe even so much so, that you have to take another position.

I never worked at a job where I just couldn't SAY I had an interview and would be gone.

Isn't there labor laws to protect people from persecution? Maybe I've only worked for employers under a union. *nod*

I'm still waiting to hear how this turned out.

yes, generally you can just quit. it's usually a couple of week's notice, but it can be less if both parties agree, so if you want to quit, you just do. The penalty is usually a bad/no reference. Technically, they can refuse to acept no notice. few places do. They can fire you for no reason at all here, unless you have a contract. I*t's not technically Moonlighting bacause you don;t have a contract, but so what? They can fire you just because

Wider employment rights and protections only kick in after you've been employed for a year. Your contract is your sole protection during that first year.

Last I knew, non-compete clauses aren't legally binding except in two states in the US.

The little contract work I've done has never dictated that I not work for anyone else while under contract.

*shrugs*