Time off in lieu (TOIL) Policy

Thanks to RadHR for this policy. We have made minor adjustments to suit our co-op.

Purpose

Common Knowledge recognises the organisation’s responsibility to help ensure work is not negatively impacting on the wellbeing of workers, through quantity (overwork). This policy outlines the the process around accruing and taking Time off in lieu (TOIL).

Who does this policy apply to?

This policy applies to employees and freelance members of the co-op, referred here as ‘workers.’

Principles

Common Knowledge will aim to treat overwork primarily as a collective issue of organisational planning and resource allocation, and secondarily as an issue of individual support needs and working habits.

We agree that we will attempt to collectivise the issue of overwork, leading to wider organisational discussion and decisions (around training, job descriptions, opportunity development, offering collective support to prioritise workload, reallocating particular tasks to others, and scheduling) to avoid overwork becoming a regular practice.

Quantity of Work

Our full time workers are paid to work 4 days, 32 hours per week. Part time workers are paid on a pro-rata basis. It is each individual’s responsibility to ensure working hours are recorded accurately in the time-tracking platform Productive. All overtime should be logged as normal.

Quality of Work

Not only can overwork negatively impact the mental health and wellbeing of workers, but it can also negatively impact the quality of the work undertaken. Preventing overwork is therefore also an issue of responsibility that workers have to the wider co-op.

Collective Responsibility

The person stewarding the Governance: Culture, Community, Policy and Legal responsibility area should check in with the workers every month on their TOIL accumulation.

If a worker is consistently clocking significant extra hours they should bring this up with the worker, investigate the reasons for this and identify if wider co-op support and redistribution of work responsibilities is required.

Individual Responsibility

Workers should not accumulate more than 35 hours TOIL per month. If such a high number of TOIL is accumulated, this should be reviewed with the wider organisation to identify if project planning and resource allocation need adjusting.

Taking TOIL

Hours worked over 32 hours per week (or pro rata equivalent) can be taken as time off in lieu, or carried over to the following month. It is strongly encouraged that TOIL time is taken back within a week or two after it is accumulated.

The maximum accumulation of overtime / lieu time which can be rolled over at any point is 35 hours.

TOIL must be taken in the current holiday year, which runs 1 April to 31 March, and cannot be carried over.

The worker should inform the co-op as soon as possible about when they are going to be taking back their TOIL time. TOIL may not be taken in a block of more than two days, unless this is agreed by the co-op.