Appendix 5: Unscheduled absence

APS agencies provide aggregated figures on unscheduled absences to the APSC for annual collation and reporting. Unscheduled absences include personal, carer’s and miscellaneous leave (bereavement, compassionate and emergency leave). It includes instances of these leave types with or without a supporting medical certificate, whether paid or unpaid.

The methodology used to calculate the unscheduled absence rate changed in 2020–21. The 2021–22 reporting period is the second year in which this updated calculation method has been used.

The previous measure of APS unscheduled absence rate was determined by calculating the unscheduled absence rate for each agency individually and then obtaining the average of those agency rates. In this method, all agencies had equal influence on the overall unscheduled absence rate irrespective of agency size.

It is well established that larger agencies tend to have a higher unscheduled absence rate than smaller agencies. As a result, this method underestimated the true unscheduled absence rate across the APS as it was disproportionately influenced by employees in smaller agencies – which make up more than 50% of APS agencies, yet only 3.4% of APS employees.

The updated method incorporates the headcount of agencies when calculating the APS unscheduled absence rate. In practice, every agency’s unscheduled absence days and full-time equivalent (FTE) are summed, and the unscheduled absence rate is calculated by dividing the total number of unscheduled absence days by the total FTE of the APS.

APS unscheduled absence rate = Total days of unscheduled absence across APS / Total FTE of APS

This change shows an increased unscheduled absence rate for the whole APS of around 2 days. The method of calculating each individual agency’s unscheduled absence rate remains the same.

Table A5.1 compares the unscheduled absence rate between the current and previous methods of calculations across the whole-of-APS and broken down by agency size. Over the last 6 years, both methods show similar trends; however, the updated method adds approximately two days to the APS unscheduled absence rate. The updated, current method also increases the unscheduled absence rate for small and large agencies with only a slight difference for medium size agencies.

Table A5.1: Comparison of calculation methods for unscheduled absence rates (2016–17 to 2021–22) (expressed as an average number of days)

Table A5.2 shows unscheduled absence rates by agency size for the financial year 2021–22. The absence rate for the APS and each agency size group increased from 2020–21, particularly in medium and large agencies. This increase partially reverses a decline observed in the previous year. This may reflect working conditions beginning to return to a pre-COVID way of working, such as lower rates of remote work.

Table A5.2: Unscheduled absence by agency size (2020–21 and 2021–22)

Table A5.3 provides personal and miscellaneous leave use and unscheduled absence rates by agency for 2020–21 and 2021–22 (expressed as an average number of days). Note that for small agencies, a small number of individuals with a large amount of leave taken can influence the unscheduled absence rate substantially.

Table A5.3: Sick leave, carer’s leave, miscellaneous leave and unscheduled absence rate by agency (2020–21 and 2021–22) (expressed as an average number of days)

* Agency provided headcount (not full-time equivalent) data