Mat leave and freelancing, grey area?

[olderthanyouthink]

I'm on maternity leave atm and my sort of ex manager (he is/was freelance, edging his way of of the company so not really my manager by time i went on mat leave but he still does work for them and we are in contact about projects when he needs help with one of mine) contacted me about doing some freelance stuff with both my work and new companies as clients. I'm not sure on the legality of working for him as a freelancer, working for my employer on a freelance basis.

I know I can work for other companies freelance but is him being the middle man enough?

Maybe I could do the work and not have any direct contact with my employer since he'd be my client and I'd keep everything separate with my own email address and laptop etc same as I would for any client or personal projects.

Bump

On a self employed basis you mean? You can do genuinely self- employed work while on maternity leave. I can’t see how you could genuinely work on a self-employed basis for the company which already employs you. But if you are self employed in your own right separately and your contract with your employer permits you to work outside your employment, you could do some work for other clients.

Yes on a self employed basis. My contract would be with my former manager (who is self employed) and his contracts would be a mix of my employer and other companies. He would be contracting out the bits that i can do but he can't/doesn't like.

Ok, well as I said, I can’t see it being viable for you to work for your current employer on a self-employed basis. That would be foolish of them to allow that. But other clients yes, if your contract with your employer permits you to do that while still employed by them.