TIME is becoming more valuable than money. Employees in some of Britain’s biggest companies are taking advantage of new schemes that allow them to sacrifice part of their salary in return for extra holiday.

The cash for holidays deals are offered by companies such as Nationwide, Lloyds TSB and Cadbury Schweppes. According to the preliminary results of research by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), due for publication early next year, 8% of employers now offer staff the opportunity to buy extra holidays.

Until recently the practice was virtually unknown, with companies allowing workers no more than the maximum paid entitlement. But there has been growing pressure in the workforce for longer holidays, a fact highlighted last week when London Underground managers gave in to union demands for a record 52-day annual holiday entitlement for station staff.

The annual Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For research, which captures the opinions of more than 58,000 employees across 228 companies, confirms that a growing number of workers are opting for more time rather than cash. Given the choice, 44% chose money and 36% preferred time off. In the 1970s and 1980s higher pay, rather than more holiday, was the priority for the vast majority of workers.

Now, complaints from employees are often more likely to be about long hours. British employees work among the longest hours in Europe and have some of the shortest holidays, although they work fewer hours than their counterparts in America and Japan.

In France and Germany, employees enjoy about six weeks’ holiday plus 11 bank holidays. American and Japanese workers, by contrast, take two weeks’ holiday a year.

On average, British companies offer 25 days of paid holiday a year plus eight bank holidays. The new unpaid entitlements enable workers either to enjoy an extra week off or to take several long weekends during the year.

Charles Cotton, who researches pay and benefits for the CIPD, said: “Employers report that the ability to buy holidays is one of the benefits employees value most. If they want to take more Friday afternoons off to go surfing or something, this allows them to do it.” The study looked at 572 organisations in the private and public sectors, employing 1.5m people.

Out of its 15,000 employees, 3,500 Nationwide staff this year opted to trade in part of their salaries for more holiday.

Paul Bissell, senior rewards manager at Nationwide, said: “Increasing numbers of our employees are buying holidays. Leisure time and leisure pursuits have become more important to people than money.

“Ten or 20 years ago a good basic salary, a pension and a few days’ holiday was what attracted high-quality staff. Now employees are more selective.”

Laura Scott, 24, from Purton, near Swindon, Wiltshire, a senior analyst with Nationwide, sacrificed five days’ pay for an extra week’s holiday. Scott, a keen horsewoman who plays polocrosse — lacrosse on horseback — says the extra holiday enabled her both to compete during the summer and go on holiday to America. “I value my holidays,” she said. “I am quite happy to take a small salary cut if it means I can take five extra days off.”

For Philip Pashley, 37, from west London, an internal communications manager with Centrica, the services company that owns British Gas, it was the attraction of spending more time with his young family that persuaded him to swap three days’ pay for time off.

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