# 2016-125 - Environmental Allowances, Land Duty Allowance – Attach posting to a non-designated unit, Recovery of Overpayment/Debt Write-Off

Case Summary

F&R Date: 2016–10–27

From 2008 to 2010, the grievor received the Land Duty Allowance (LDA) while he was on attached posting to a unit that was not designated as an operational unit for the purposes of Chapter 205 of the Compensation and Benefits Instructions (CBI). In 2015, the grievor was advised that LDA paid to him for the period in question would be recovered. The grievor argued that recovery action was unreasonable given the elapsed time between payment of the allowance and the decision to take recovery action.

The Initial Authority (IA) found that, as the grievor was attach posted for a period in excess of six months to a unit that is not designated for this purpose, he was not eligible to receive LDA, in accordance with paragraph 205.33(6) of the CBI. Consequently, the IA found that recovery, over several months, was reasonable.

The Committee found that the grievor was never attach posted during the period in question. While the Committee noted that the grievor had been employed in another unit, his home unit, designated as an operational unit, was mandated to provide the support on a permanent basis and the associated positions belonged to the grievor's unit establishment. As such, it is by way of a position change within the same unit rather than an attach posting that the grievor was employed at the other unit. The Committee therefore recommended that the grievor receive LDA for the period in question.

The Committee also noted that the unit did not have the authority to attach post members under these circumstances and that its practice was contrary to policy. The Committee further noted that another unit operating under the same circumstances at a different base did not proceed in the same manner and that its members employed outside the unit continued to receive LDA. Consequently, the Committee made a systemic recommendation that the grievor's unit cease to deploy its personnel under these circumstances by means of an attach posting and that it review the file of CAF members that may have been aggrieved by this practice since the inception of LDA.

FA Decision Summary

FA Decision Pending