TOIL (Time Off in Lieu)
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Also known as: time off in lieu, lieu time, time in lieu
TOIL (time off in lieu) is paid time off given to employees in exchange for extra hours worked, instead of overtime pay.
TOIL — time off in lieu — is leave granted to an employee in return for hours worked beyond their normal schedule, as an alternative to paying overtime. An employee who works three extra hours might bank three hours of TOIL to take later.
TOIL is popular because it costs the employer nothing in extra wages and gives staff flexibility. It works best with a clear policy on how TOIL is accrued, approved, capped, and how long it can be carried before it expires.
TOIL vs. overtime
Overtime pays cash (often at a premium rate) for extra hours. TOIL pays in time off instead. The two can coexist — some hours paid, some banked — but the policy should be explicit so balances and expiry are tracked and extra hours don't quietly accumulate unpaid.
How TOIL is tracked
TOIL is earned in hours but usually taken in days or half-days, so it needs a record that converts one into the other at the agreed rate and keeps a running balance. In Absenca, the extra hours are logged by the employee or, if you prefer, only by managers; once approved, the hours are converted into days at the rate set on the TOIL leave type and added to a TOIL balance. That balance is booked like any other leave, including as half-days, and approved TOIL can be set to expire a fixed number of days after it was earned.
Example
An employee works 5 hours on a weekend project. Under a 1:1 TOIL policy they bank 5 hours of lieu time to take as a half-day plus an hour later in the month.
See it in Absenca
Absenca logs, approves, converts and expires TOIL automatically — so extra hours become time off instead of quietly going untracked.
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Frequently asked questions
- Does TOIL expire?
- Usually yes. Most policies require banked TOIL to be used within a set window (for example the same quarter or within three months) so balances don't build up indefinitely. The expiry rule should be written into the policy.
- How is TOIL different from flexitime?
- Flexitime lets employees vary their start and finish times around core hours within the same period, usually balancing out week to week. TOIL banks extra hours already worked to be taken as time off later, often across weeks or months, and is tracked as a separate balance.
Related terms
Stop calculating leave by hand
Absenca handles accrual, carry-over, pro-rata, and public holidays automatically — so every balance is right without a spreadsheet. Free for up to 10 people.