# 2019-165 Pay and Benefits, Special Commuting Assistance

Case summary

F&R Date: 2020-12-07

The grievor, a Reservist, was challenging the refusal of his Commuting Assistance Allowance (CAA) claim. He argued that he was entitled to CAA under the National Joint Council (NJC) Commuting Assistance Directive, a Treasury Board (TB) regulation that, according to the grievor, takes precedence over directives of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF). He was requesting reimbursement of the CAA for the duration of his temporary Class B Reserve service.

The Initial Authority (IA) concluded that TB had exclusive authority to determine and regulate allowances and the reimbursement of expenses related to the conditions of military service. With respect to the CAA, TB partially exercises this authority by means of chapter 209 of the Compensation and Benefits Instructions for the Canadian Forces (CBI). The IA concluded that the grievor was not entitled to CAA. However, the IA found that the grievor's circumstances met the requirements of Canadian Forces Temporary Duty Travel Instruction (CFTDTI) 5.28 concerning disruptions caused by a temporary workplace and ordered a reimbursement of the grievor's commuting expenses for the first 60 days of his attached posting.

The Committee explained that NJC directives do not take precedence over those of the CAF. Where TB does not stipulate otherwise, CAF members are governed by a separate set of regulatory instruments as regards their allowances and reimbursements, as the CBI are TB regulations. According to the Committee, the CAA set out in the CBI is applied based on the member's usual place of work and not his place of residence, and requires that conditions be met with respect to public transportation and a suitable residential community, which is not the case in the grievor's circumstances. The Committee found that the grievor had experienced a disruption in his commuting habits and had not received the prescribed 30 days' notice. The Committee therefore recommended that the grievor be granted the reimbursement of his commuting expenses for the first 60 days of his temporary duty, in accordance with CFTDTI provisions.

FA decision summary

The Director of the CAF Grievance Authority, acting as Final Authority (FA), partially approved the Committee's findings, but remains in disagreement with the Committee's recommendation to reimburse the grievor for their commuting costs. The FA found that the grievor was treated according to the policies in place and thus did not grant the grievor redress. The FA retained that under CBI 209, to be eligible for CAA, the designated workplace must, among other things, be situated more than 16 kilometers by road from the closest domicile, which was not the grievor's case.