Employee retention payments (FOI)

Request

The Government of Jersey makes “retention payments” to certain employees and that these payments are in addition to their basic salary and do not form part of their remuneration as disclosed at:

Public sector pay scales (gov.je)

In relation to these "retention" payments please confirm:

A

The qualifying criteria in order to receive these payments.

B

Confirmation that these payments are available to all civil servants and manual workers. If not please expand.

C

Detail of the authorisation process of these additional payments.

D

The time period over which these payments are made to clearly identify whether these payments are time limited or open ended.

E

When these payments first commenced being paid.

F

The number of civil servants and manual workers receiving these payments and how many received these payments in the calendar year 2022.

G

The average amount of these monthly or annual payments.

H

The highest payment currently being made.

I

Please specify clearly the amount, frequency, and duration of these payments.

J

The department in which persons receiving these payments are employed.

K

Besides these “retention payments” please supply a complete list of all other payments and benefits that are paid to civil servants and manual workers that are not disclosed clearly on:

Public sector pay scales (gov.je)

This list to include such items as (but not limited to) enhanced pension contributions, additional paid holiday entitlement, relocation allowances, provision of equipment, cars and so on, accommodation allowances, travel subsidies, parking subsidies, parking season tickets, and more.

Response 

A

Recruitment and retention payments are additions to the pay of a post, or group of similar posts, where market pressures would otherwise prevent the Government of Jersey from being able to recruit or retain staff in sufficient numbers at the salary for jobs of that grade. 

Labour market conditions dictate these payments. 

A recruitment and retention allowance is deemed suitable where there is evidence that: 

• The post has been advertised on one or more occasions and a suitable applicant could not be recruited.
• A pay benchmarking exercise shows that other similar organisations offer a recruitment and retention allowance or a higher salary for the same role. 
• There is a national or local skills shortage where we are competing with several other employers for these roles. 
• The post is highly specialised with a limited number of potential applicants.  

B

No, only those posts which meet the criteria set out above. 

 C

The responsible officer must authorise and consult with the Chief People and Transformation Officer. If the total remuneration (including any additional payments) is above £100,000 a formal request must be submitted to and approved by the States Employment Board. 

 D

These are typically between a one and three-year period. One-off payments are also made by exception. An annual review is required to test against the criteria set out in the answer to A above.  

E

The earliest record held of a ‘Retention Allowance’ payment is November 2017, although it is likely they may have been used in various forms before the centralised records currently held.   

F and H

Please see attached table.  

G

The Scheduled Public Authority (SPA) does not hold information relating to the average monthly or annual payments made. The Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 does not require an SPA to create new data sets specifically for this purpose, therefore Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.  

I

Payroll frequencies are Monthly for all Civil Servants (CS) and Weekly for all Manual Workers (MW). The durations of payments are outlined under ‘D’ above. Providing a further breakdown of the requested information would result in disclosure of personal information which is exempt under Article 25 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011. 

J

Please see attached table. 

K

The information requested is held within individual employee personnel files. It is estimated that to undertake the work required to identify relevant individuals and confirm the requested details would exceed the 12.5 hours maximum the time limit as prescribed by Regulations. Article 16 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied. 

Table.pdf

Articles applied 

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 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 2005.

(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 2005; and

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

3)      In determining for the purposes of this Article whether the lawfulness principle in Article 8(1)(a) of the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018 would be contravened by the disclosure of information, paragraph 5(1) of Schedule 2 to that Law (legitimate interests) is to be read as if sub-paragraph (b) (which disapplies the provision where the controller is a public authority) were omitted.