Appendix 5: Workplace absence methodology

Workplace absence definition

Workplace absence refers to ‘absence from work in recognition of circumstances that can generally arise irregularly or unexpectedly, making it difficult to plan, approve or budget for in advance, and which is inclusive of planned medical procedures.’ ¹

As part of the definition, workplace absence was also divided into five categories: sick leave, carer’s leave, compensation, specific types of miscellaneous leave, and unauthorised leave.

Measuring levels of absence

To maximise data comparability across the APS, agencies were asked to provide data on a full-time equivalent (FTE) basis if possible, although agencies that were unable to extract FTE counts from their Human Resources Information System (HRIS) were still able to report using the ‘headcount’ measure. Of the 95 agencies in the agency survey, 19 provided data on a ‘headcount’ basis.

Agencies were also asked, where data was available, to provide the number of absence days for each of the five workplace absence categories as defined below:

• Sick leave—an absence, regardless of duration, whether paid or unpaid, resulting from an employee being too sick or injured to work, or to undergo a planned medical procedure. This category excludes absences related to accepted compensation cases.
• Carer’s leave—an absence, regardless of duration, whether paid or unpaid, resulting from a member of the employee’s immediate family or household, for which the employee has caring responsibilities, being sick or injured and in need of care. appendix 5: workplace absence methodology
• Compensation—an absence resulting from personal injury or disease sustained out of, or in the course of, employment (i.e. work-related) and accepted by Comcare. The leave includes the total number of days or part-days an employee is absent from work due to incapacity. It excludes time spent at work on rehabilitation programs, where rehabilitation takes place at the workplace in paid employment.
• Specific types of miscellaneous leave—an absence, regardless of duration, whether paid or unpaid, resulting from a personal, family or household emergency, or loss of a close family member or friend.
• Unauthorised leave—an absence, regardless of duration, whether paid or unpaid, that given the circumstances is not supported or approved by management.

Where an agency’s HRIS did not allow reporting against each of the categories separately, it was asked to provide a total only—11 agencies indicated this to be the case.

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