# 2019-113 Pay and Benefits, Pension entitlements

Case summary

F&R Date: 2020-12-18

The grievor was in a car accident in March 2004 while on duty. At the end of his period of Reserve Class B service, his medical employment limitations made him unfit for a subsequent period of service. He requested and obtained an income replacement benefit from the Commission de la santé et de la sécurité au travail (CSST) from September 2004 to December 2005. In 2008, the grievor submitted a request to buy back pensionable service. In 2017, he received the calculated cost of his pensionable service buy-back. This result excluded the period during which the grievor had received CSST benefits. The grievor alleged that when he had to sign onto a disability program in 2007, the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) had neglected to inform him about the compensation for disability – Reserve Force. This benefit program would have made it possible to include the period of disability as pensionable service. As redress, the grievor asked that the information in his Member Personnel Record Résumé be changed so that the period of disability be considered pensionable service and that he be paid the difference between the compensation for disability – Reserve Force that he would have received and the benefits he received from the CSST.

The Initial Authority did not render a decision within the prescribed timeline and the grievor requested that his grievance be sent to the Final Authority (FA).

The Committee found that the CAF was not required to inform the grievor of all available disability plans. The CSST program enabled the grievor to receive replacement allowances and gave him access to a full-time training program. Furthermore, the Committee found that at the time when the grievor had chosen a disability plan, there was no retirement plan for the Reserve Force. Accordingly, the impact on the calculation of pensionable time would not have been a factor in the choice of disability plans.

The Committee recommended that the FA not grant the grievor redress.

FA decision summary

The Director of the Canadian Forces Grievance Authority, acting as the Final Authority (FA), agreed with the Committee's recommendation to deny the grievance. The FA noted that the grievor had availed himself of the provincial disability plan that was available to him at the time, rather than the Reserve Force compensation for disability. At the time, he was on Reserve Force leave without pay. Years later, the grievor was informed that this period was excluded for the purposes of calculating the prior service buyback for pensionable service. The FA concluded that there was no sign of negligence or omission on the part of the CAF with respect to the information provided to the grievor about the two disability plans available to members of the Reserve Force in the early 2000s. The FA further found that the notice of release for non-effective strength issued by the grievor's commanding officer was consistent with the policies that were in effect at the time.