Information regarding complaints about employee sickness absence proceedure

Clare Thompson-Lewis made this Freedom of Information request to Newcastle upon Tyne City Council Automatic anti-spam measures are in place for this older request. Please let us know if a further response is expected or if you are having trouble responding.

Newcastle upon Tyne City Council did not have the information requested.

Clare Thompson-Lewis

Dear Newcastle upon Tyne City Council,
I would like the following information please.
1. The date that the current employee sickness absence policy was created and dates of any subsequent amendments to it since its creation.
2. Number of complaints made by employees or their trade union representatives regarding the policy since its creation.
3. Anonymised summary of nature of complaints, with particular emphasis on stress caused by rigid implementation of the policy.
4. Summary of the council’s responses to aforementioned complaints.
5. Number and anonymised details of reasonable adjustments requests to the procedure as made by employees who are covered by the Equality Act of 2010, in particular with reference to disregarding triggers where absence was unavoidable due to disability or where the stress caused by the procedure had /was likely to have a negative impact on the employee.
6. Whether the above requests were met or refused and in the case of refusal, the reason(s).
7. Any evidence that demonstrates the council and HR department when creating the sickness absence procedure, took into consideration the need to comply with the Public Sector Equality Duty.

Yours faithfully,
Clare Thompson-Lewis

Freedom Of Information Requests Mailbox, Newcastle upon Tyne City Council

Acknowledgement - FOI 20103

Thank you for your request for information. We are dealing with it under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

We have passed your request to relevant colleagues who will respond within 20 working days starting the working day after receipt of your request.

Regards
Freedom of Information Team

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Bowlt, Anna, Newcastle upon Tyne City Council

1 Attachment

Hi,

Please see attached response to FOI 20103

Regards,

Anna

Anna Bowlt

HR Assistant (Schools)

HR Services

Workforce & Inclusion Directorate

5^th Floor – Civic Centre

Newcastle City Council

NE1 8QJ

Telephone : 07815469594

Email : [1][email address]

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References

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1. mailto:[email%20address]

Clare Thompson-Lewis

Dear Newcastle upon Tyne City Council,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Newcastle upon Tyne City Council's handling of my FOI request 'Information regarding complaints about employee sickness absence proceedure'.

For an organisation that collects statistics on such things as how many times library customers request assistance to use a public photocopier, I am surprised that so many of my questions were answered with a variation on "we don't collect that information".

Also, with reference to the council’s Equality Policy, the council states one of it's values involves "tackling unequal outcomes and potentially unfair impacts of decisions and policies". How can NCC claim to be doing this if they do not collect statistics on the questions I asked? How can they prove they are evaluating their policies?

In the same policy under the heading "Our commitments", there is information regarding the council’s commitment to "carry out Integrated Impact Assessments (IIAs) on our significant decisions, policies, plans, practices and procedures [and] to treat employees fairly".

As before, surely the council must centrally collate the data I requested in order to carry out these IIAs and to treat employees fairly? In which case I would like to re-request the information that you claim is unavailable.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/i...

Yours faithfully,

Clare Thompson-Lewis

Freedom Of Information Requests Mailbox, Newcastle upon Tyne City Council

Thank you for your email.

In line with guidelines from the Information Commissioner’s Office, we can
confirm that the response to your Freedom of Information request will be
independently reviewed and we will write to you again as soon as the
review is complete and in any case, within 20 working days from receipt of
your request.

Kind Regards,

Freedom of Information Team
Newcastle City Council

From: Clare Thompson-Lewis <[FOI #940589 email]>
Sent: 05 March 2023 14:58
To: Freedom Of Information Requests Mailbox <[Newcastle City Council
request email]>
Subject: Internal review of Freedom of Information request - Information
regarding complaints about employee sickness absence proceedure

Dear Newcastle upon Tyne City Council,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Newcastle upon Tyne City Council's handling of my FOI request 'Information regarding complaints about employee sickness absence proceedure'.

For an organisation that collects statistics on such things as how many times library customers request assistance to use a public photocopier, I am surprised that so many of my questions were answered with a variation on "we don't collect that information".

Also, with reference to the council’s Equality Policy, the council states one of it's values involves "tackling unequal outcomes and potentially unfair impacts of decisions and policies".  How can NCC claim to be doing this if they do not collect statistics on the questions I asked?  How can they prove they are evaluating their policies?

In the same policy under the heading "Our commitments", there is information regarding the council’s commitment to "carry out Integrated Impact Assessments (IIAs) on our significant decisions, policies, plans, practices and procedures [and] to treat employees fairly".

As before, surely the council must centrally collate the data I requested in order to carry out these IIAs and to treat employees fairly?  In which case I would like to re-request the information that you claim is unavailable.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: [1]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/i...

Yours faithfully,

Clare Thompson-Lewis

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Freedom Of Information Requests Mailbox, Newcastle upon Tyne City Council

Dear Ms Thompson-Lewis,

Thank you for your request for an Internal Review.

We have carried out an independent review of the response that was
originally provided to you on 16/02/23 and our findings and decision are
shown below.

 
Question 1.  The date that the current employee sickness absence policy
was created and dates of any 
subsequent amendments to it since its creation. 
 
•  The current employee sickness absence policy was launched in February
2014 and it. 
has not been amended since this date. 

We agree with this response and have no further comments
 
Question 2.  Number of complaints made by employees or
their trade union representatives regarding the 
policy since its creation. 
 
•  We do not hold this information centrally. Should an employee or
Trade Union 
Representative have concerns it is possible that this
could be raised as part of the 
individual’s sickness absence process.  

For responses 2,3,4,5 and 6, please see comments below
 
Question 3.  Anonymised summary of nature of complaints, with particular
emphasis on stress caused by 
rigid implementation of the policy. 
 
•  As above, this information is not collated or held centrally.  
 
Question 4.  Summary of the council’s responses
to aforementioned complaints. 
 
•  N/A as explained in points 2 and 3 above. 
 
Question 5.  Number and anonymised details
of reasonable adjustments requests to the procedure as 
made by employees
who are covered by the Equality Act of 2010, in particular
with reference to 

──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

disregarding triggers where absence was unavoidable due to disability or
where the stress 
caused by the procedure had /was likely
to have a negative impact on the employee. 
 
•  We do not track this
information centrally, and therefore unable to report on it or provide 
details. 
 
 
Question 6.  Whether
the above requests were met or refused and in the case of refusal,
the reason(s). 
 
•  As above in point 5, we are unable to provide this information.   
 
 
Question 7.  Any evidence that demonstrates the council and HR
department when creating the sickness 
absence procedure, took into consideration the need to comply
with the Public Sector Equality 
Duty 
  
•  Given the length of time since the sickness absence policy
was launched, any evidence 
that demonstrates compliance with the Public Sector Equality Duty
would no longer be 
available, however the HR Department always
seeks advice and guidance from Legal 
Services on policy proposals to ensure compliance with its Duties under
the relevant 
Acts. 

We agree with this response and have no further comments

For responses 2.3.4.5 and 6

Generally, a member of staff  would not complain about a HR policy, for
example through corporate complaints where they would keep a log of
complaints etc. This is  because before any HR policy is published, it is
consulted on and agreed with management and trade unions.

Employees don’t generally complain about a policy as such but if an
employee did wish to complain, our HR department’s  advice is likely to be
that it would be accommodated as part of the process that they are being
managed under if they felt they were being unfairly managed or the policy
unfairly applied. It could be considered by their manager at any stage, a
formal review, mitigation in the hearing or part of their appeal.

This is likely to go to an employees’ manager in the first instance rather
than HR and in various formats including verbal at a meeting, to being
part of an employee case or their letter of appeal.

Separate to this, they could potentially also raise a grievance about a
policy but that may not be considered valid if they had already gone
through a sickness process and had a right of appeal. We would not allow
an employee to re-run the same issue under the grievance procedure if it
had already been dealt with.

To summarise, if we do hold any of the information you require, it would
not be held in a searchable structured format.

If you are still unhappy with how we have handled your request following
our internal review, you can complain to the Information Commissioner. 
Contact details are as follows:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Phone: 0303 123 1113
Email: [1][email address]

Kind Regards,

Freedom of Information
Newcastle City Council

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