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7 Creating a Time off in Lieu policy

18 Feb, 2019 11:14

Hi All

I am looking for some advice in creating a fair and reasonable time off in lieu policy.

We currently have a UK sales team who prefer to stay overnight rather than travel later in the day past their normal daily contracted hours, this can be an expensive option so looking at offering TOIL instead. Would this be reasonable from a business perspective or would travel to a customer for a sales meeting be expected as part of their role therefore is that more dependent on their salary?

Also we have a number of staff who need to travel abroad, sometimes this travel is at a weekend and their working time may extend in a day beyond the normal 9-5. There are a number of different ways this is being managed currently so we would like to give more consistency around this.

I had been thinking, after reading a previous forum post that a day TOIL for travel to another country would work and time back for actual working time beyond the 5pm finish. Alternatively would it be better to go along the lines of hours worked and depending on the day ie Sunday - double time, Saturday - time and a half, weekday - normal time.

In the case of travel on a Sunday, if a flight was 8 hours for example for a long haul flight this would be two working days back. Are we being over generous or fair in this case given that the employee is travelling long distances and is away from home for business purposes.

I would be very grateful for any input.

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David | 0 Posts

18 Feb, 2019 11:49

Hi Katherine

It's usual in my experience to not to apply premia to TOIL - especially if it's travelling time between jobs - so eight hours to travel on a Sunday gets eight hours off in lieu.

It's also advisable to have some kind of authorisation / control mechanism for banking TOIL - otherwise people tend to generate their own tallies and suddenly appear waving a load of numbers added up on a bit of scrap paper and demanding hundreds of hours off (or pay in lieu). Therefore, would recommend eg line manager signing - off TOIL hours to be banked and a time limit for taking them in order to prevent excessive / unrealistic accumulations. And if needs be a policy that payment in lieu of taking time off won't normally be allowed but exceptionally may be made at higher management discretion.

Some employers have rules eg that employees must normally return home and not stay overnight if within a certain distance radius of base and vice versa - that discourages eg excessive driving long distances without an enforced break so is often considered safer.
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Robey | 0 Posts

18 Feb, 2019 14:09

We currently have a UK sales team who prefer to stay overnight rather than travel later in the day past their normal daily contracted hours

Couple of important words leap out at me, in the premise: one is "sales". I presume, as a sales team, these people are paid some form of commission or target-based bonus? In my experience, such people shouldn't typically earn TOIL any more than they'd earn overtime. They are supposed to be motivated to work in the most focussed and efficient way possible, so rewarding them on a time basis tends to fly in the face of that. If one does the job in 35 hours a week that another takes 45 to achieve, why should the less efficient worker be compensated for their inefficiency?

The other important word is "prefer". If it is a business requirement that they stay overnight, well, fair enough. But if they are choosing to do it rather than make a long but reasonable return journey, I can't help feeling that the cost of both hotel and time should fall to the employee, not the employer.

Mind you, I have a low tolerance for sales people. Perhaps yours are wonderful and deserve special consideration.
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David | 0 Posts

18 Feb, 2019 14:50

In reply to Robey:

Tend to agree with Robey
- there's an old saying: 'when yer marchin' yer not fightin'

- for sales and other itinerant employees usually it's far better to regard the travel as part and parcel of the job and pay overall salary etc at a level to compensate.
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Katherine | 0 Posts

18 Feb, 2019 15:24

In reply to David:
Hi David Many thanks for your reply. I had thought that myself re the double time etc but thought perhaps being new to this I was missing something so it is great to get some expert input. Especially when I am then going to speak to the managers concerned. I have taken on board your comments re build up of numbers too as there has been in the past I think some very high TOIL volumes. Again many thanks
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Katherine | 0 Posts

18 Feb, 2019 15:28

In reply to Robey:
Hi Robey, many thanks for your take on this. I must admit to being surprised at it myself for sales people as when I had been field based (although I wasn't sales) I wouldn't have thought to ask as it was part of the role. But as with David great to get your expertise and input it certainly gives me a lot more confidence around this.
Thank you.
PS did like your thread on what you would like to really say :)
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Stacey | 0 Posts

22 Feb, 2019 12:39

In reply to Katherine:
Hi Katherine,

We don't have a formal TOIL policy but we do have a comprehensive travel policy.

We are based in South Wales and people travel to London a lot (by train), so we do allow the 11 hours between the time they get home and coming in to work the next day.
For long haul travel we usually give them a day either side of the trip to acclimatise to time differences.
If travel occurs on a Saturday/Sunday then they are entitled to take the next working day(s) off.
Our travel is usually because of conferences but we don't give extra time back if they go past their normal 8 hour days whilst they are away.

Our policy does state that TOIL needs to be taken back as close to the time as possible.

Thanks
Stacey
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Katherine | 0 Posts

22 Feb, 2019 22:19

In reply to Stacey:
Hi Stacey
Thank you for taking the time to come back to me on this, I think it is worth considering putting the travel policy and TOIL together as one policy it makes sense as they two go hand in hand. The advice on the 11 hours and long haul travel is very useful as well.
Many thanks
Katherine
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