# 2021-305 Pay and Benefits, Hardship Allowance

Case summary

F&R Date: 2023-11-28

The grievor argued that he had been aggrieved by the lack of decision of the Vice Chief of the Defence Staff regarding the designation of hardship level of his post in Romania, that resulted in the non-allocation of allowance to himself and other Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) members who served at that post. The grievor submitted that Romania was the only European country that had completed a total evacuation of all dependants of CAF members at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the quality of living and the condition of medical facilities in the country. As redress, the grievor requested that his post be assigned a hardship level equal or greater than level II retroactive to the start of his deployment, that the related allowances be paid, and that the grievor's fellow CAF members who served at the same post be afforded the same entitlements he requested.

There is no Initial Authority decision on file and the Canadian Forces Grievance Authority analyst recommended that the grievance be submitted to the Final Authority (FA).

The Committee noted that following the Committee's receipt of the grievance, the grievor's post was designated at a hardship level II, backdated to the start of his deployment. Over the course of its review of the grievance, the Committee confirmed that the grievor had received payment all associated benefits including the Post Differential Allowance (PDA) and the associated additional benefits related to travel from post. The Committee found that although the grievor had been aggrieved by the omission of the CAF in initially providing him with PDA for the duration of time he was at the post, the fact that he ultimately received the allowances he requested rendered the point moot. The Committee did note that the extraordinarily late recognition of the hardship suffered by the grievor and his family diminished the nature of the grievor's service. Finally, the Committee acknowledged that other members may have suffered the same fate as the grievor and encouraged the FA to ensure those other members be identified and fairly compensated but found that the grievor's request that his fellow CAF members receive the same entitlements he requested was outside of the purview of the grievance process.

The Committee recommended that the FA afford the grievor redress by recognizing the maladministration of this matter by the CAF.