# 2012-137 Careers, Class C Reserve Service

Case Summary

F&R Date: 2013–02–12

The grievor complained that the reasons indicated in a memorandum (memo) by his Company Sergeant Major (CSM) for refusing to forward his application for an operational deployment to higher Headquarters (HQ) were incorrect, offensive and outrageous. He requested that the memo and all related documents be expunged from his records.

The Initial Authority (IA), the unit Commanding Officer (CO), denied the grievance, finding that the reasons were justified and that the grievor had not provided sufficient justification to substantiate expunging the documents from the grievor's records.

The Board reviewed the reasons set out by the CSM and, like the grievor, found that those reasons were inaccurate, inappropriate and unfair. Accordingly, the Board found that the CSM's memorandum should be expunged from the grievor's records.

The Board also observed that the unit should have forwarded the grievor's application, either with or without support, to higher HQ for consideration but this was not done. In the end, the Board concluded that the unit's use of such inappropriate reasons as justification for not forwarding the grievor's application was demeaning and insulting and the Board was surprised that this sort of tactic was endorsed by the CO in his IA decision.

The Board recommended that the grievance be upheld and that the grievor's application for deployment, the CSM's memorandum, and all related documents be expunged from the grievor's files.

CDS Decision Summary

CDS Decision Date: 2013–10–11

The CDS partially agreed with the Committee's recommendation that the grievance be upheld. The CDS disagreed with the Committee's suggestion that COs should have a limited role in the screening of candidates that volunteered and / or are tasked for deployment. The CDS trusted that the grievor's chain of command exercised its prerogatives to deny his request for deployment, considering the grievor's past conduct shortcomings as indicated in the administrative measures. However, the CDS was prepared to redact three of the five unsubstantiated reasons given in the memorandum to deny the grievor's operational deployment. The CDS found that the memorandum and its remaining contents are to be retained in the grievor's personnel file in accordance with Chapter 9 of the Military Human Resources Record Procedures.