Land Duty Allowance – Attach posting to a non-designated unit

Topic

Land Duty Allowance (LDA) – Attach posting to a non-designated unit

Case number

• 2016-125 (F&R date: 2016-10-27)

Issue

While reviewing a grievance regarding the recovery of the LDA, the Committee noted that the grievor’s home unit, designated as an operational unit for the purposes of Chapter 205 of the Compensation and Benefits Instructions (CBI) governing LDA, attach posted personnel for lengthy periods of time to a non-designated unit to perform duties associated with positions established within its own unit establishment to provide support to that other unit on a permanent basis. This practice contravenes posting authorities and is contrary to the practice of another unit operating under the same circumstances. 

This practice also resulted in barring the affected Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) members from receiving the LDA in accordance with paragraph 205.33 of the CBI. The Committee found that the circumstances surrounding the actual posting of these CAF members did meet the definition of an attach posting but was rather better described as a reassignment of position within the same unit.  Further, the Committee noted that a reassignment of position would not disqualify the CAF members of the unit in question to receive the LDA.

Recommendation

The Committee recommended that the file of all members of the grievor’s home unit in question, employed under the same circumstances since the inception of the LDA policy, be reviewed to make sure their eligibility to the LDA is reassessed in light of the particular circumstances of their posting.

Final Authority decision

The Final Authority agreed with the Committee’s findings and recommendations, noting that the grievor was not formally attach-posted away from his unit.