# 2022-261 Careers, Terms of Service, University Training Plan Non-Commissioned Members

Case summary

F&R Date: 2024-03-26

The grievor argued that his Terms of Service (TOS) were improperly administered by the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) following his acceptance into the University Training Program for Non-Commissioned Members (UTPNCM). The grievor thought that upon accepting the offer he would accrue nine years of mandatory service, which would require him to sign an extension to his TOS to cover off the full period of mandatory service. The grievor stated that he requested a Continuing Engagement (CE) TOS to not affect his entitlement to an immediate annuity after 20 years of service, which should not have commenced until he had completed his Intermediate Engagement (IE) 20 TOS. Instead, the CE was made effective on the “date accepted”. According to the grievor, under the terms of his original IE20 TOS, he was entitled to an immediate annuity upon completing his obligatory service and that this error by the CAF resulted in him losing this entitlement. As redress, the grievor requested that his TOS for his IE20 be reinstated and the TOS for the CE he signed be amended to only take effect following the completion of his IE20 TOS. 

The Director General Military Careers (DGMC) acting as the Initial Authority (IA) determined that the grievor knew, or ought to have known, of the issue with his CE TOS on the date of signing them and that as such, the grievance was not submitted within the required time limit. Nevertheless, the IA considered whether it would be in the interests of justice to adjudicate the grievance but found that the document the grievor signed clearly indicated that he had accepted the CE TOS, and therefore his reasons for delay were insufficient, and the grievance should be rejected.

The Committee reviewed multiple versions of the Canadian Forces Superannuation Act to properly understand the implications to the grievor's pension entitlements. In the lead up to accepting his UTPNCM position, the grievor's chain of command engaged with the Director Military Career Administration (DMCA) in order to address the grievor's TOS not covering off all of the obligatory service. In this exchange it was explicitly stated by DMCA that the intent of offering the grievor a CE was to cover the new period of mandatory service as well as protecting his entitlement to a pension after 20 years of obligatory service. It is also clear that the intent was for the CE to begin at the conclusion of the grievor's IE20, not replace it. The Committee found that the grievor was aggrieved by that fact that he was erroneously considered to have been removed from his IE20 due to an administrative error. 

The Committee therefore recommended to the Final Authority (FA) to afford the grievor redress by correcting his records to show that his CE only began upon completion of his IE20.

FA decision summary

The Deputy Director Canadian Forces Grievance Authority, acting as a delegated FA, agreed with the Committee that in accordance with Canadian Forces Military Personnel Instruction 05/05 – Terms of Service, when the grievor signed accepting a CE to follow his IE, the CE should have started on the day following the end of the IE, rather than the IE being immediately cancelled and the CE starting on the day of acceptance. However, as the grievor had now completed 25 years of service and become eligible for an unreduced immediate annuity, the FA found that the grievance was moot. Rather than adopting the Committee's recommendation to correct the grievor's records, he found that no action was required.