# 2017-152 Careers, Selection Board

Case summary

F&R Date: 2018-06-13

The grievor was excluded from the annual selection board due to Medical Employment Limitations (MEL). Following the release of the Canadian Forces General Message (CANFORGEN) 012/17 directing the de-linking of medical conditions from promotion criteria, the grievor argued that the Canadian Armed Forces should hold a supplementary board.

The Director General Military Careers, acting as the Initial Authority, denied the grievance. He explained that before CANFORGEN 012/17, a military member with permanent MEL inconsistent with universality of service was ineligible for promotion. As the CANFORGEN was issued without retroactive effect, he concluded that supplementary selection boards should not be held for affected personnel.

The Committee noted that the CANFORGEN was issued at the very beginning of the promotion year and therefore found that it applied to that year's promotion process. Accordingly, the Committee found that the grievor was “promotable” and recommended that a supplementary board be conducted.

FA decision summary

The Chief of the Defence Staff, the final authority (FA), accepting the Committee's report as his own, determined that the grievor had been aggrieved and directed that a supplementary selection board be convened to assess the grievor's merit listing for 2017.

The FA found that CANFORGEN 012/17 was confusing and that, in anticipation of the new policy, the Canadian Armed Forces should have been proactive and ensured that those with medical categories were not excluded from the selection boards held in the fall of 2016. He stated that making those with a permanent medical category wait until the 2018 promotion year to be considered was “counterintuitive to the intent of the CANFORGEN.”

The FA conducted his own analysis of the grievor's file and deemed he was competitive for promotion and, accordingly, a supplementary selection board should be held.