# 2013-028 Careers, Honours and Awards, Reserve Force, Subcomponent Transfer

Case Summary

F&R Date: 2013–07–31

Six months prior to reaching Compulsory Retirement Age (CRA), the grievor requested a transfer from the Primary Reserve (P Res) to the Cadet Organizations Administration and Training Service (COATS). Upon reaching CRA, the grievor was transferred to the COATS Inactive List despite having requested to transfer directly to an active COATS position. Following the grievor's release/transfer to the Inactive list, she was required to re-enroll and complete a Suitability Assessment Protocol to determine her suitability to work with youth, actions which required in excess of six months. The grievor complained that her sub-component transfer was mishandled and requested that the time on the COATS Inactive List be counted towards the first clasp to her Canadian Decoration (CD).

The Initial Authority (IA) agreed that the grievor's transfer request was not managed properly and that she was provided incorrect and misleading advice but concluded that the delay was reasonable, stating that the grievor should have reported to the Canadian Forces Recruiting Centre to commence enrolment processing well before her CRA date. The IA acknowledged that the grievor had voluntarily paraded with her COATS unit while her file was being processed but found that her time could not be counted towards the first clasp of her CD because she was not assigned to an active position. He therefore denied the grievance.

The Committee agreed that the grievor was provided incorrect advice and found that the offices responsible for processing her sub-component transfer failed to do so correctly. The Committee also concluded that the grievor left sufficient time for the necessary processing to occur and that she should have been transferred to the COATS position upon reaching CRA.

The Committee noted that both the grievor and her COATS unit Commanding Officer initially thought that she had been properly transferred when she began parading with the unit and found that the grievor's transfer to the COATS Inactive List was a result of errors in processing her file and that her records should be corrected to properly reflect that she transferred to COATS and commenced serving in an active position. However, recognizing that the grievor should have been screened prior to working with youth but was permitted to parade and was eventually screened, the Committee recommended that the screening requirement be waived by exception for the period that the grievor was improperly on the Inactive list.

Finally, the Committee found that it was within the authority of the Chief of the Defence Staff, under Queen's Regulations and Orders 10.06, to find the grievor's circumstances exceptional and to amend the grievor's sub-component transfer record to properly reflect her transfer from the P Res to an active COATS position.

Therefore, the Committee recommended that the grievance be upheld and that the grievor's administrative records, including her pay, be audited and corrected accordingly.

CDS Decision Summary

CDS Decision Date: 2014–05–16

The Final Authority (FA) agreed with the Committee that the grievor's transfer to the COATS-IL was an error since she identified the active position to which she would transfer early in the release process, and the FA agreed that the mismanagement of the grievor's transfer to COATS caused her to lose pay and time toward her CD1. The FA partially granted the redress recommended by the Committee. The FA agreed with the Committee that he should authorize the grievor's transfer to a COATS active position as of her release date. The FA found that, accordingly, the qualification date for the grievor's CD should be based on her original enrolment in the CAF. The FA waived the Defence Administrative Orders and Directives 5002-1 screening requirement for service in a COATS organization for the period from the grievor's release until the date all administrative requirements had been completed again, since the grievor had participated in activities in the interim. Regarding her work during the period she and her CO mistakenly believed her transfer had been effected, the FA directed that the grievor be paid for 10 days at the rate of the rank for the position, which was below her substantive rank, (specialist pay had been identified to employ her for a specific tasking) and directed that the remaining 13.5 days be considered unpaid days as a Cadet Instructor Supplementary Staff member.