Job evaluation scores (FOI)

Request

Further to the recent decision notice issued by the Office of the Information Commissioner (see below):

Office of the Information Commissioner Decision Notice of 19 December 2018

Please supply a table listing the following:

• all individual job evaluation scores

• existing pay grade for the job evaluated

For clarity, I am not requesting any information that would lead to the identifying of any individual, however I am requesting each of the individual scores and associated pay grades be supplied in a similar format to the following.

Score Grade

267 Civil Service Grade 3

232 Civil Service Grade 3

251 Civil Service Grade 3

283 Manual Work Grade 1

279 Manual Work Grade 1

If possible I would prefer the information be supplied in either an excel or csv format document, however this is not a requirement.

Response

The information requested is withheld under Article 25 (Personal Information) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 as it is the opinion of the scheduled public authority that the decision of the Information Commissioner would also be applicable in relation to this request.

The following extracts of the Information Commissioner’s decision notice are considered particularly relevant:

63. Of those non-unique jobs, it may also be possible for individuals within that band to experience some unrest because it may be possible to identify others supposedly on the same grade but who appear to attract a higher salary for the same job. For example, if a certain role attracts a salary within a particular band, an assumption (whether correct or not) may be drawn that an individual with a higher JIT score might attract the higher salary. That may not be the case but the Commissioner accepts the submission that the information could be viewed in that way and that it could case distress to employees.

67. The SPA noted that the vast majority of individuals whose details make up the spreadsheet are well below the threshold at which the States of Jersey publishes salary bands. That being so, such employees have a reasonable expectation of privacy in relation to their employment, their salary and their performance reviews. This information was obtained as part of an internal employment review. Individual members of staff would have had no expectation of their JIT scores being made public. All staff members were given access to their own JIT score and a detailed breakdown of the ramifications this would have on their employment and could appeal the score given for their role. That information was purportedly provided in a confidential manner and there was nothing within the process that would have explicitly led employees to believe that this information would be made public or that their own scores would be shared with other States of Jersey employees.

70. There is already a large amount of information in the public domain and whilst it is accepted that there is public interest in the workforce modernisation program itself, the information generated in relation to individuals is not considered to have that same public interest (even if the Applicant may have a private interest in the information). The Commissioner considers that the release of the information is not likely to further contribute to the debate on this topic and the Complainant has not been able to articulate why it is fair or otherwise in the public interest to release this information, other than citing the usual arguments about transparency of government. In this case, the process is transparent in respect of those employees who are engaged in the process: they have been engaged in the review (and able to make submissions on their own role) and can appeal the ultimate score given to their role (and thus salary banding). That is personal information and not something that is ultimately likely to be usefully debated in the public domain.

71. Similarly, the release of the Withheld Information is not likely to assist in public understanding of the process itself.

Article applied

Article 25 Personal information

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018.

(2) Information is absolutely exempt information if –

(a) it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is not the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018; and

(b) its supply to a member of the public would contravene any of the data protection principles, as defined in that Law.