Total cost of employee sickness to the government in the year 2025

​​​Request 828626205

This request again relates to employee sickness absence data included in the States of Jersey 2025 

Annual Report and Accounts, which reports a total of 85,965 days lost in 2025, up from 75,317 days lost in 2024 (9.7 average sick days per employee compared to 8.8 the year before).

Would the People Services team be able to provide the total cost of employee sickness to the government in the year 2025?

Response

Absence and payroll data is held on separate systems and therefore the cost of employee sickness has been provided as an estimated figure, calculated from an employee’s hourly basic pay rate, multiplied by the hours of sickness leave, taking into consideration and making adjustments for individuals’ entitlement to pay whilst absent due to sickness including full pay, half pay, or nil pay. It does not include any on costs for pension and social security.

On this basis, the cost of absence in 2025 was £17.4m.

We do not hold the data required to calculate the cost of cover for employee sickness absence and Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

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.​