Time off in lieu (TOIL) and flexitime explained
Time off in lieu, or TOIL, is time off you get back for extra hours worked, instead of overtime pay. Flexitime lets you choose when you work your hours. Both run on a balance that someone has to keep.
In short:
- TOIL is usually hour for hour: an extra hour worked is an hour off later.
- In the UK there is no legal right to it: your contract or your employer’s policy sets the rules.
- Flexitime lets you start and finish when you like around core hours, as long as your hours add up over a set period.
- Both work on a running balance: hours worked minus contracted hours, minus any time off taken.
What is time off in lieu?
“In lieu” means “instead”. When you work beyond your contracted hours, some employers give you the time back as paid time off rather than paying you overtime. Stay two hours late to finish a project, and you can leave two hours early on another day, or save the hours up and take a whole day.
How is TOIL calculated?
Most TOIL schemes are hour for hour. Some give more time back for unsocial hours, such as an hour and a half for each hour worked at the weekend, the time-off equivalent of time and a half. The sum is the same as for overtime: hours worked minus contracted hours, week by week, added to a running balance. For example, on a 37.5-hour week:
| Week | Worked | TOIL earned or taken | Balance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | 41 h | +3.5 h | 3.5 h |
| Week 2 | 41.5 h | +4 h | 7.5 h |
| Week 3, one day taken as TOIL | 30 h | −7.5 h | 0 h |
How to calculate overtime explains the weekly sum in detail, including weeks with holidays in them.
What are the rules on TOIL?
In the UK there is no legal right to time off in lieu, or to overtime pay. Whether you get TOIL, at what rate, whether it has to be agreed in advance, how soon you must take it and how much you can carry over all come from your contract or your employer’s policy, so it is worth having them in writing. TOIL does not change the working-time limit either: the extra hours still count towards the 48-hour average week, unless you have opted out.
What is flexitime?
Flexitime is one of the types of flexible working: you choose when to start and finish, usually within limits. A typical scheme has core hours when everyone must be working, say 10:00 to 16:00, and flexible bands either side. Over a settlement period, often a week or a month, your hours have to add up to your contracted total, give or take a carry-over limit: for example, up to 10 hours in credit or in debit. Hours in credit can often be taken as flexi leave, a half day or a whole day off.
How to keep a TOIL or flexi balance
- Record the hours you actually work, start and finish, every day. Rounding to “about 8” adds up to hours lost over a month. See how to track your work hours.
- Compare each week with your contracted hours, taking holidays and public holidays out of the target first.
- Record time off in lieu as a short or empty working day, not as holiday. The hours you don’t work are what spends your balance; booking them as annual leave would use up your holiday allowance instead.
- Check the balance against your employer’s figure now and then, and before you leave a job, since untaken TOIL is often lost or only paid out if the policy says so.
How Clockflux keeps the balance
Clockflux keeps your overtime balance across every week: each week’s hours minus its target, added up, in the Health view. If you already have hours in hand, enter them once as your starting balance in Settings → Overtime. To take a day of TOIL, leave it as an ordinary workday and don’t check in: that day’s target comes off your balance. Don’t mark it as a day off in the calendar, because a day off is taken out of the target and leaves the balance where it was. Leaving early works the same way: the hours you don’t work come off the balance.