# 2019-263 Careers, Annual Leave, Leave Entitlement

Case summary

F&R Date: 2020-11-27

The grievor argues that low staffing levels at her Military Police (MP) unit resulted in her having to work additional shifts and being denied her leave entitlements.

The Initial Authority denied the grievor redress indicating that the work schedule at her MP unit was implemented fairly and that the grievor received appropriate compensation for the number of shifts worked.

The Committee found that shifts were added to the grievor's work schedule after she requested days of annual leave in an attempt to divide the work equally between members of the unit. The Committee found that this approach was unreasonable and contravened the Canadian Forces Leave Policy Manual. The Committee further found that the grievor's unit had been chronically undermanned and a form of compensation should be provided when unit members are required to serve extended hours on a regular basis.

FA decision summary

The Director Canadian Forces Grievance Authority, as Final Authority (FA), agreed with the Committee's recommendation to uphold the grievance. The FA agreed the form of shift schedule with on-call duty was permitted; but not intended to be used as a regular staffing model. She stated that "While Canadian Armed Forces members can be expected to work in excess of a typical "work week", there must be adequate periods of rest and relaxation scheduled to support their physical and mental well-being". The FA found that the grievor should have not have had to use annual leave to have some time off work and credited seven days of Special Leave. The FA did not specifically addressed the Committee's systemic recommendation that members of the 25 MP Flt's leave balance should not be reduced when the Chain of command has to schedule extra equivalent hours to meet the needs of the service.