EMPLOYEES in York and North Yorkshire are too busy to go on holiday, it was claimed today.

Research carried out by youatwork, the employee benefits division of Royal & SunAlliance, has revealed that workers in the region fail to take more than three months holiday over the course of their working lives.

Throughout North Yorkshire, employees lost an average of one-and-a-half days holiday last year. Roughly one-in-five workers from the region said they were simply too busy to take all their holiday entitlement.

Wendy Nichols, regional convenor for public service union UNISON, said she was not surprised by the findings.

But she said taking holiday from work was very important and failing to take annual leave could have a negative effect on people's work.

She said: "If someone's workload is so great that they can't take holiday, something is wrong.

"Leave is an integral part of people's lives. When things get too much, if you can't take some leave then your stress levels will get much worse."

She added that some companies and organisations had become more flexible about when employees took leave. Staff at North Yorkshire County Council could arrange to carry over some of their annual leave to the next year.

Missed holidays mean that nearly four billion pounds worth of work goes unpaid across the country each year.

The survey also revealed 28 per cent of workers would prefer to trade in some of their holiday for other benefits such as car allowance or gym membership.

Updated: 11:19 Tuesday, June 10, 2003