Two Jobs at Once: Is It Legal in Europe?

Can you have two jobs at once? The short legal answer

In October 2026, a trial at Southwark Crown Court in London made headlines across Europe. Prosecutors allege that Kashim Chowdhury, a 55-year-old civil servant, held five full-time public-sector jobs at the same time between February 2020 and September 2023, earning nearly £350,000, using remote work and sick notes to cover the overlap. At one point, the court heard, his contracts added up to 183 hours a week — more hours than a week has. He denies all nine counts of fraud, and the trial was ongoing at the time of writing.

The case is extreme, and what is alleged is deception, not a second job as such. Holding two jobs at once is legal and common in most European countries: a part-time job alongside a full-time one, weekend shifts, teaching a course, or two part-time contracts. What matters is whether your contract allows it, whether the combined hours stay within the law, whether the jobs compete or conflict, and whether you are honest with each employer about what you have to declare.

What EU law says: the right to parallel employment

Article 9 of the EU Directive on transparent and predictable working conditions (2019/1152), which EU countries had to transpose by 1 August 2022, says an employer may neither prohibit a worker from taking up employment with other employers outside the work schedule agreed with that employer, nor treat the worker less favourably for doing so.

Countries may allow employers to restrict a second job only on objective grounds. The Directive's examples are:

• Health and safety, including limiting total working time.
• Protecting business confidentiality.
• The integrity of the public service.
• Avoiding conflicts of interest.

So a blanket clause saying "you may not work for anyone else" is no longer automatically valid. National laws decide the details — Ireland's implementing regulations, for example, require any restriction and its objective grounds to be set out in the contract or a written statement. Read your contract and any staff handbook: a clause that bans working for a competitor or using company information is much easier for an employer to justify than a general ban.

Working hours: does the 48-hour limit count both jobs?

The Working Time Directive (2003/88/EC) caps average weekly working time at 48 hours, including overtime, calculated over a reference period of up to four months, and requires at least 11 consecutive hours of daily rest. The Directive itself doesn't say whether these limits apply per worker or per contract when someone has several jobs. The EU Court of Justice has ruled that when a worker has several contracts with the same employer, the daily rest period applies to all of them together (case C-585/19). The European Commission's view is that the limits should, as far as possible, apply per worker.

In practice, it depends on the country. According to the Commission's 2023 report on how the Directive is applied:

• Per worker — the hours of all your jobs are added together: Bulgaria, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, France, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria and Slovenia.
• Per contract — each job is counted separately: Czechia, Spain, Latvia, Hungary, Poland, Portugal and Slovakia.
• Per worker with the same employer, per contract with different employers: Belgium, Denmark, Lithuania, Malta, Romania, Finland and Sweden.

Two examples of how national law spells this out. Germany's Working Hours Act states that working time with several employers must be added together. In France, combined jobs must stay within 10 hours a day and 48 hours a week (or 44 hours on average over 12 consecutive weeks), whatever the number of employers; your employer can ask you for a written statement that you comply, and exceeding the limits can lead to a fine of up to €1,500 (€3,000 for a repeat offence).

When your employer can say no

• Competition and loyalty. Working for a direct competitor, poaching clients or using your employer's confidential information breaches your duty of loyalty in most countries, whether or not your contract mentions it. In France, for example, you may not take on an activity that competes with your employer.
• Exclusivity clauses. Where national law still allows them, they must be justified and proportionate. In France, an exclusivity clause must be indispensable to protect the company's legitimate interests and justified by the nature of the job — and it cannot be imposed on part-time employees.
• Hours and rest. If the second job would push you over the working-time limits, or leave you unable to take the required rest, your employer has an objective reason to object.
• Public servants. Public employers can usually require authorisation. In France, for instance, a public official needs prior authorisation for most additional activities, which must not affect the functioning, independence or neutrality of the service or create a conflict of interest; the administration answers within one month.
• A duty to tell. Many contracts and collective agreements require you to inform your employer before taking on other paid work, even where they cannot forbid it. Not telling them when you were obliged to is a disciplinary issue in itself.

The UK is no longer bound by the EU Directive, but since December 2022 exclusivity clauses have been unenforceable for zero-hours workers and for workers whose guaranteed weekly pay is at or below the lower earnings limit, and dismissing such an employee for breaching one is automatically unfair. Above that level, UK contracts may still contain exclusivity or second-job clauses.

Where a second job becomes misconduct or fraud

Having two employers is not dishonest. What gets people dismissed — or prosecuted — is deception:

• Working for employer B during hours employer A is paying you for, without their agreement.
• Taking sick leave from one job while working at the other.
• Hiding a second job you were contractually required to declare, or lying when asked.
• Using one employer's equipment, data or clients for the other job.

Remote work has made it easier to hold two jobs at once — sometimes called "overemployment" — but it doesn't change the rules: if both contracts expect your full time in the same hours, you can't honestly do both. If you want to work for more than one organisation, freelancing or a declared part-time arrangement is the safer structure.

Tax, social security and two jobs on your CV

With two employers, each one normally deducts tax and social contributions from your pay. Because each payroll sees only its own salary, the total withheld may not match what you owe on your combined income, so check how your country handles a second job and whether you need to file a tax return.

If your jobs are in different EU countries, you are covered by only one country's social security system. If you do a substantial part of your work in your country of residence — at least 25% of your working time and/or income — you are usually covered there; otherwise other rules decide. Ask the social security institution in your country of residence for a decision and a portable A1 document.

On a CV, list concurrent jobs as separate entries with their own dates, and mark part-time or freelance roles as such so the overlapping dates read as intentional rather than as an error. Recruiters and background checks do notice overlapping dates, and an honest label is better than an awkward question in the interview.