Stockpiled leave forced the government to launch the 'No leave, no life' campaign.

One of the real dangers that face Australian business is so hidden that it rarely gets a mention: staff refusing to take leave.

Ostensibly, longer hours worked by staff would seem to lend to a better bottom line. Yet bypassing leave can actually damage a company, reported the Australian Financial Review.

Two years ago, Australia had such a problem with untaken leave that it forced the federal government to run a campaign called "no leave, no life". The marketing campaign was run by Resources and Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson to encourage workers to take a holiday.

Back then, Australia's collective postponement of leave had accumulated to 123 million days - a $33 billion liability on the balance sheets of private and public enterprises, according to Tourism Australia.

Today, the figure has fallen to 118 million days of stockpiled leave but is still valued at $33.9 billion, the newspaper reported.

Large leave balances negatively impact a business because of the financial risks that they pose, including the costly departure of an employee owed a lot of leave on the salary budget.

It was economically irresponsible from the point of view of managing business to allow staff not to take holidays, said Mr Ferguson.

Whilst managers may be reluctant to lose key employees for long periods of time, they can find it tricky ordering them to take holidays in the modern workplace.

"It's up to the individuals themselves," said former BHP Billiton chairman Don Argus.

"Everyone seeks to get the right family lifestyle balance. [But] once you start telling people what they have to do, I worry about that. You have someone interfering with your life."

Tourism Australia is part of a few companies that have introduced incentives for staff to go on holidays, offering three extra days annually if staff reduce their leave balances to less than ten days.

The global financial crisis encouraged employers to force more of their workers to take leave.

"During the GFC people were encouraged to run leave balances down and stay on the employment books," chairman of the Australian Human Resources Institute, Peter Wilson said.

"It's a liability on the balance sheet … The problem is if people are not taking leave they are going to be more tired and this impacts on health and wellbeing."

"Many employers went out of their way to keep people on their books," Mr Ferguson said.