Request
A.
Many States departments permit staff to work their contracted hours on a flexible time basis, the so called flexitime system. These systems permit a certain amount of additional time worked in each month to be carried forward to the following month, usually up to 2 days. The remainder of any time worked is written off with no option for payment by the employer. I wish to find out how much time was written off, broken down for each quarter and by those departments which permit flexitime, for the calendar year of 2014 and if possible for the 1st quarter of 2015.
B.
I would also like the cost of the time written off in these circumstances to be provided, either by department or in total if that is not possible. If it is not possible to provide this information I would like to be advised why this level of detail is not routinely retained. Thank you.
Response
A.
The table below sets out the number of hours that are written off by departments operating the flexi-time system. The figures do not include employees that have left the departments that operate the ‘Bodet flexi-time system’, as there are a limited amount of licences. In addition to this, departments have varying amounts of time that may be carried over to the following period. For example, Treasury allows staff to carry forward 40 hours over to the following month, whereas Chief Minister’s Department allows staff to carry forward 20 hours. Therefore, the table is not comparable by department.
Department | 2014 Qtr 1 | 2014 Qtr 2 | 2014 Qtr 3 | 2014 Qtr 4 | 2015 Qtr 1 | Comment |
Chief Minister's Department | 1204:50 | 1271:09 | 1006:58 | 1161:00 | 1313:47 | 20 hours each month per employee may be carried forward |
Department of Environment | 455:50 | 351:04 | 324:18 | 330:32 | 513:41 | 20 hours each month per employee may be carried forward |
Economic Development | 010:43 | 059:38 | 021:20 | 056:55 | 022:47 | 20 hours each month per employee may be carried forward. Not all employees use the flexi-time system |
Education, Sport and Culture | 099:20 | 082:57 | 068:57 | 1051:46 | 000:00 | Dependent on requirements of the department |
Home Affairs | 000:00 | 000:00 | 000:00 | 000:00 | 000:00 | No official flexi-time operated |
Health and Social Services | 000:00 | 000:00 | 000:00 | 000:00 | 000:00 | No central flexi-time system operated |
Police | 000:00 | 000:00 | 000:00 | 000:00 | 000:00 | No official flexi-time operated |
Social Security | 748:52 | 632:28 | 693:48 | 699:11 | 1075:41 | 15 hours each month per employee may be carried forward |
Treasury and Resources | 694:29 | 349:30 | 323:46 | 328:16 | 510:28 | 40 hours each month per employee may be carried forward |
Transport & Technical | 955:46 | 807:44 | 637:41 | 813:47 | 810:29 | 2 days (14 hours and 48 mins) may be carried forward each month |
States Greffe | 019:49 | 027:53 | 018:55 | 004:42 | 017:06 | 10 hours for each 4 weekly period may be carried forward |
Non-Mins | 306:00 | 253:00 | 241:29 | 211:42 | 302:48 | |
Ports of Jersey | 000:00 | 000:00 | 000:00 | 000:00 | 000:00 | Flexi time system not operated |
Total hours lost | 4495:39 | 3835:23 | 3337:12 | 4657:51 | 4566:47 | |
B.
Departments do not routinely collect costs relating to time that is written off, therefore we will not be providing the information, as Article 16 Regulation 2 (1) of the Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014 allows an authority to refuse a request for information where the estimated cost of dealing with the request would exceed the specified amount of the cost limit of
£500. This is the estimated cost of one person spending 12.5 working hours in determining whether the department holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting the information.
In order to routinely collect costs, we would have to hold everybody’s hourly rate in the ‘flexi-time system’; and ensure this is updated every time there is a change in an employee or a change in working patterns. This would be a manual process and likely add significant administration time especially when there are pay awards, increments etc. There would also be security implications, as currently, the ‘flexi-time system’ simply holds people’s working patterns and hours; if we were to start holding rates of pay we would have to consider who should have access to this. Therefore, the benefit from holding the information would be less than the cost of keeping it up to date.
