Work restricted without concerning them? (8)
I believe the answer is:
opponent
'them?' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'work restricted without concerning' is the wordplay.
'work' becomes 'op' (abbreviation for opus).
'restricted' becomes 'pent' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'without' means one lot of letters goes inside another ('without' can be similar in meaning to 'outside').
'concerning' becomes 'on' (both can mean 'in relation to').
'pent' going around 'on' is 'ponent'.
'op'+'ponent'='OPPONENT'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for opponent that I've seen before include "Adversary, competitor" , "Challenger" , "One's competitor" , "Contestant you're matched against" , "Rival" .)