# 2020-164 Careers, Medical condition, Promotion

Case summary

F&R Date: 2020-12-15

The grievor was appointed to Acting Lacking Master Corporal (AL/MCpl) in 2012. Hhowever, due to medical issues, she had been unable to complete her Primary Leadership Qualification (PLQ). In January 2017, following an Administrative Review, the Director General Military Careers (DGMC) made the decision to revert the grievor to the rank of Corporal as she had been unable to attain her PLQ after four and a half years. Two days after her reversion, the Canadian Armed Forces issued a policy change, which delinked medical fitness from promotion. The grievor complained that it was unfair that she had been reverted in rank two days before the new policy came into effect.

The Committee determined that the grievor's performance as an AL/MCpl for over four years had been meritorious such that she had ranked 5th out of 535 MCpls for promotion to Sergeant in 2017. The Committee concluded that the DGMC had to have been aware of the new promotion policy when the decision was made to revert the grievor in rank just two days prior to the new policy coming into effect; and, under the new policy, the grievor would have been permitted to remain an AL/MCpl. The Committee found that it was unfair to revert the grievor under the circumstances and recommended that she be re-appointed to AL/MCpl effective the date of the new policy.

FA decision summary

The Final Authority (FA) agreed with the Committee's finding that effective 18 January 2017, with the issuance of Canadian Forces General Message 012/17, the grievor's career manager could and should have considered whether she should be promoted. The FA agreed with the second option recommended by the Committee, which was to reappoint her to her previous rank effective 18 January 2017.