Optus Glean UK employs cleaners on PAYE across the UK and welcomes applications from people already working in care who want additional, separate paid cleaning hours. Whether you are free to take on extra work depends on your own employment contract and, if you are on a sponsored work visa, on your specific visa conditions. This page explains the general picture and points you to the official gov.uk guidance — it is not immigration or legal advice, and it is your responsibility to check your own position before accepting extra shifts.
Important: this is general information, not advice
This page is written to help people understand the general landscape. It is not immigration advice, employment law advice, or a substitute for checking your own contract, visa conditions and sponsor rules. Rules change, and your personal circumstances (your visa category, your certificate of sponsorship, your existing contract) determine what applies to you. If you are not sure, check gov.uk directly or speak to an OISC-regulated immigration adviser or your current employer/sponsor before taking on additional work.
If you have no work-hours restriction
If you are a British or Irish citizen, hold settled status (or pre-settled status), have indefinite leave to remain, or otherwise have no condition limiting your hours of work, taking on additional cleaning hours alongside a care role is generally a matter for your existing employment contract only — check it for any exclusivity clause, notice requirements, or working-time considerations, not immigration rules.
If you are on a sponsored work visa (e.g. Health and Care Worker visa)
If your right to work in the UK is tied to sponsorship — for example a Health and Care Worker visa or Skilled Worker visa — additional paid work outside your sponsored job is only allowed under specific conditions, and it is called "supplementary employment".
GOV.UK's own guidance for Health and Care Worker visa holders states: you "can do additional paid work on a Health and Care Worker visa as long as you're still doing the job you're being sponsored for," up to 20 hours a week, and the additional work must fall into one of three categories set out by gov.uk: it is in "an eligible occupation code that is a 'higher skilled' job"; it is "on the immigration salary list"; or it is "in the same sector and at the same level as your main job." (Source: gov.uk — Health and Care Worker visa: taking on additional work, checked 5 July 2026.)
Whether a general commercial cleaning role meets one of those three tests depends on the specific occupation code and skill level attached to the cleaning job, and on your own main job and certificate of sponsorship — we cannot tell you in general whether it does, and you should not assume it does. Skilled Worker visa holders have their own equivalent supplementary employment rules on gov.uk, which may differ in detail. Check the gov.uk page for your specific visa type, or ask an OISC-regulated adviser, before accepting a second job.
What stays constant, whatever your status
Whatever your immigration status, the rules gov.uk describes are consistent on one point: your primary sponsored job must continue as normal — supplementary employment does not replace it, and it does not entitle you to reduce your hours or duties in the sponsored role. You remain responsible for making sure any extra work you take on is compatible with your own visa conditions; an employer offering extra shifts is not able to confirm your personal eligibility for you.
How Optus Glean UK approaches this
We employ every cleaner on PAYE, never as self-employed or through an agency arrangement, and we run standard right-to-work checks on every applicant, as UK law requires of every employer. We welcome applications from people already working in care who are eligible to take on additional hours — but confirming that eligibility, including checking your own visa conditions with your sponsor or on gov.uk, is your responsibility as the applicant, not ours. If in doubt, check gov.uk or take independent OISC-regulated advice before you apply.