The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has urged employers to allow their staff to take 29 February as a day’s paid annual leave which they use to reduce their personal carbon footprint, highlighting the benefits to the environment and staff morale.

Green Leap Day would allow employers to give their salaried staff an extra day’s paid annual leave every leap year, instead of taking advantage of the free day’s labour that 29 February provides.

The initiative has stemmed from the National Trust’s plans to allow all of its 4,800 staff to spend 29 February at home, or in their local community, making changes to improve their environmental footprint – such as sorting out their recycling or building a compost heap.

The TUC has backed the idea and called for it to become a national 24-hour scheme for environmental improvement. “Giving employees an extra day off work while encouraging them to think about what they can do to go greener sounds like a great idea,” says TUC general secretary Brendan Barber.

“More employers should be thinking about how to give their staff a better work-life balance,” he adds. “It’s time for the government to take a leaf out of the National Trust’s book and create a new Community Day bank holiday.”

According to the National Trust’s director-general Dame Fiona Reynolds, the initiative could have substantial environmental benefits.

“There are more than 29 million employees in the UK. If just one million changed one light bulb and turned their thermostat down by one degree, it would save 351,000 tons of carbon,” she says. “We want all organisations of all sorts and sizes to come on board in whatever form they are able, to encourage people to do something for the environment.”

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), however, warned that not everyone could afford to give their staff an extra day off.

“The National Trust has the HR resources to manage an extra day’s leave, while the average small firm cannot afford to lose an extra day of work and doesn’t have the HR resources to manage it,” says FSB spokesman Simon Briault. “It should be at the discretion of individual businesses whether to take part in Green Leap Day.”

© BHP Information Solutions 2008. All rights reserved.