TOIL (time off in lieu)

TOIL might sound painful, but it’s actually quite the opposite. TOIL stands for “time off in lieu”, itself short for “time off in lieu (instead of) payment”.

At some businesses, employers will offer time off as an alternative to payment when an employee works more than their contracted hours — for example, if they work past their scheduled finish time during a busy shift, or when another member of the team calls in sick, creating a gap in the rota.

Whether an employee receives overtime pay or is offered time off in lieu of payment varies from company to company, and is usually decided in advance rather than happening on an ad-hoc basis. Overtime, on the other hand, is usually treated differently from TOIL, with staff paid for the additional hours they work depending on their employment contract.

In some cases, employers will choose to offer time off in lieu as a way to keep their staffing costs consistent or to stay within a strict budget cap.

Increasingly, employers are making use of staff scheduling software such as RotaCloud to manage their team's time off in lieu allowances. These online tools allow managers to record instances of worked overtime on each employee’s individual profile, with TOIL leave and regular annual leave allowances stored separately. Staff can then request to take this leave back at a later date via a mobile app, reducing the amount of admin their manager has to deal with.

Check out our blog for more about RotaCloud’s Time Off in Lieu feature and find out how it can benefit your business.