Long Term Sickness in 2023 for Government of Jersey employees (2) (FOI)

​Request

This FOI request refers to a previous under: Long Term Sickness in 2023 for Government of Jersey employees (FOI).

Q1. Please can you confirm what the definition is of ‘long-term sickness’ for staff employed with the Government of Jersey. For example, according to the Gov.UK website it defines it as: “Long-term sickness absence (LTSA) An instance of sickness absence from work lasting 4 or more weeks.”

Q2. How many members of staff employed with the Government of Jersey have been off for the minimum length of time to the answer to question 1? IE, how many employees have been off for a minimum of 4 weeks, 5 weeks or 6 weeks continuously for both years? (the amount of week depending on what the definition of long-term sickness is). 

Q3. How many hours have been lost by Government of Jersey employees in 2023 and 2024 (so far) who have been classed as ‘long-term sick’?

Q4. Can you break this down by department and reason for the sick leave? 

Many thanks

Response

1.

The Government of Jersey Managing Attendance Policy defines ‘long-term sickness’ as ‘any period of continuous absence of more than 4 weeks (20 working days); or, an underlying medical condition which causes frequent short-term absences’. 

2 to 4  

It is not possible to provide the total number of hours lost due to Long Term Sickness across the Government of Jersey as this information is not recorded in a reportable format, Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.   

Information on all sickness broken down by department, which may be helpful, is publicly available in response to a previous Freedom of Information Request which can be accessed via the link below. Article 23 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied 

Long Term Sickness in 2023 for Government of Jersey Employees (FOI)  ​

Articles ap​plied:  

Article 3 - Meaning of “information held by a public authority”

For the purposes of this Law, information is held by a public authority if –

(a)     it is held by the authority, otherwise than on behalf of another person; or

(b)     it is held by another person on behalf of the authority.

Article 23 - Information accessible to applicant by other means

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it is reasonably available to the applicant, otherwise than under this Law, whether or not free of charge.

(2) A scheduled public authority that refuses an application for information on this ground must make reasonable efforts to inform the applicant where the applicant may obtain the information.​