Delayed Army Communications and Information Systems Specialist (ACISS) Pay Review

Topic

Delayed Army Communications and Information Systems Specialist (ACISS) Pay Review

Case number

• 2016-013 (F&R date: 2016-05-31)

Description

On 30 June 2011, the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) released a Military Employment Structure Implementation Plan (MES IP) announcing the amalgamation of three CAF occupations into one new occupation.  On 1 October 2011, the legacy occupations of Land Communication and Information System Technician (LCIS TECH), Signal Operator and Lineman were grouped into a new single parent occupation named ACISS.

In accordance with the MES IP, vested rights regarding rank, seniority, pay and Terms of Service were granted to all three former occupations.  The MES IP noted that LCIS TECH was the only occupation of the three that was in the Specialist Trade 1 Pay Group at the time of amalgamation.  The new ACISS occupation was allocated to the Standard Trade Pay Group pending completion of a pay evaluation by the Director Pay Policy and Development to determine the appropriate scale, and whether it would be entitled to specialist pay. The study was to be completed no later than 1 January 2013. To date, the study has not commenced.

The Committee acknowledged that the CAF has the right, if not the obligation; to restructure its occupations to be more efficient, but found that it must do so in a fair, thorough and transparent manner. The Committee found that the CAF prematurely set out to merge the occupations without having first completed the necessary pay evaluations. Although the CAF achieved its primary goal of streamlining the occupation and its structural elements, it failed to address the resultant pay issues which were passed on to ACISS members. 

The Committee opined that only after a pay review has been completed and all aspects known and finalized should an occupation be restructured; to do otherwise reflects a lack of planning and coordination. It is not acceptable to leave the pay aspect out of the equation or to delay it indefinitely.  The Committee noted that this example of unacceptable delay was not an isolated case and that it was unfair for CAF members to suffer the consequences of poor planning and premature policy implementation by waiting more than five years to learn whether they are entitled to specialist pay.

Finally, given the lack of certainty that any future decision to award specialist pay would be implemented retroactively, the Committee was also concerned that with each passing year more potential harm was being done.

Recommendation

The Committee recommended that the Chief of the Defence Staff direct the Chief of Military Personnel to personally oversee the completion of the ACISS pay review in an expedient manner, and to ensure that if the review results in one or more sub-occupations of the ACISS trade receiving specialist pay, that it be implemented effective the date of the amalgamation, 1 October 2011.