Instead of paying for overtime, some employers offer 'time off in lieu' (TOIL). Presumably, this arrangement must be contained in the employees’ terms and conditions of employment or their Employee Handbook, and typically the time an employee takes off in lieu will be at a time that suits the employer and must be signed off by the employee’s line manager?

There are no legal provisions as to how much time in lieu an employer may offer its employees but it would normally be the time equal to the amount worked, but some do offer more or a mixture of overtime pay and time off in lieu.

If, as suggested in the question, the employer wanted to offer more time in lieu for the time worked, that change would have to be made to the employees’ contractual terms and conditions. The employer may, for example, want to offer one and a quarter or one and a half hours' in lieu for each hour worked on a bank holiday, in the same way as some employees are paid time and a half for working on a public holiday.

The only potential problem with TOIL is that