Request ID: FOI-2116-2324 Date published: 12 October 2023
You asked
Can you please give me the number of TFL staff who have taken time off work for sickness or unexpected absences each month from January 2019 onwards?
And how many of the 272 tube stations on the London Underground network have experienced closures since January 2019 due to staff shortages?
And please could you give me a list of all occasions since January 2019 where a London Underground station has been unmanned during service hours and not had step-free access available due to staff shortages?
We answered
Our Ref: FOI-2116-2324
Thank you for your request received on 17 September 2023 asking for information about staff sickness and unexpected absence.
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and our information access policy. I can confirm that we hold some of the information you require. You asked:
Can you please give me the number of TFL staff who have taken time off work for sickness or unexpected absences each month from January 2019 onwards?
Our in-house Occupational Health team provides a wide range of health services for the circa 26,000 frontline, operational and non-operational staff who work across the London Underground, Surface, Rail and Corporate directorates. Information, advice and a number of initiatives are in place to help our staff look after their health and wellbeing and support them at work wherever possible, including:
• Physiotherapy and low back pain clinics • Advice to help staff prevent medical conditions associated with shift work • Counselling and trauma services • Female and male specific health management • Cancer awareness • Stop smoking support • Extensive advice and guidance via our staff intranet pages aimed at encouraging a healthy lifestyle, including monitoring and managing chronic conditions
To help reduce the level of staff absenteeism, our senior management works closely with Human Resources and Occupational Health to support colleagues and manage absence levels. For example, we have an extensive development programme for managers at all levels on managing sickness absence.
Please see the requested information for all TfL staff (2023 data is correct up to September 2023 inclusive). The table shows all staff who first reported as being sick during that month:
Year
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Total
2019
2,928
2,536
2,335
2,303
2,173
2,055
2,280
2,275
2,370
2,662
2,588
2,422
28,927
2020
2,499
2,312
1,813
1
4
20
31
46
99
140
308
1,420
8,693
2021
4,244
2,495
2,883
2,273
3,088
3,524
4,429
3,395
2,863
3,077
3,369
5,063
40,703
2022
3,649
2,762
4,234
2,506
2,314
2,732
3,188
2,403
2,371
3,063
2,993
3,343
35,558
2023
2,584
2,380
2,642
2,134
2,183
2,106
2,218
2,355
2,311
0
0
0
20,913
Please note that for the period between April-November 2020, the low numbers of reported sickness are due partly to furlough as up to 24% of staff were furloughed at the peak of the scheme, this included a number of people who had been on long term sick. In addition, as people were being advised to stay at home, a lot of cases were recorded as ‘special leave’, which is not captured under the sickness data. Please also note that staff sickness levels would have continued to be affected by Covid-19 following the initial lockdown period. This would be colleagues who actually contracted the virus themselves, but also those that may have been shielding or self-isolating and unable to work from home (operational staff, for example).
And how many of the 272 tube stations on the London Underground network have experienced closures since January 2019 due to staff shortages?
Stations can close for a variety of reasons including staff shortages in addition to other unforeseen customer or infrastructure issues, such as faults with communications equipment, defective trains, fire alarms being maliciously activated, or other customer incidents. We aim to minimise station closures as much as possible and strive to always exhaust all avenues before making the decision to close a station. However, on some occasions it is unavoidable, and due to safety regulations which require some stations to have a minimum number of staff, we are legally obligated to close the station.
We are aware of the inconvenience that station closures can cause to our customers and only close stations as a last resort, and when we do close them we look to provide onward travel advice to customers (usually directing them to the next nearest open station). We are working to improve the situation, measures being taken include recruiting into roles where recruitment had previously been paused due to the pandemic. On the occasions when we are required to close a station, we will keep stations open according to pre-defined priority criteria, e.g. those with better connectivity to the rest of the TfL and National Rail network or step-free access, by redeploying available station staff to these stations.
Above-ground stations are not subject to the same requirements for minimum staff numbers as underground stations and may be kept open when no staff are available. TfL’s Turn Up and Go service for customers remains available at all stations.
The information you have requested has been provided in response to previous FOI requests:
Under section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act, we are not obliged to provide you with information which is reasonably accessible by other means.
And please could you give me a list of all occasions since January 2019 where a London Underground station has been unmanned during service hours and not had step-free access available due to staff shortages?
We do not hold data for 2019. The reporting process was being trialled and tested at the end of 2019, and was only properly in place at the start of 2020.
Please find the information for 2020 attached.
Information on no step-free access due to staff availability for 2021 and 2022 was published in response to a previous request:
