# 2022-311 Pay and Benefits, Foreign Service Directives, Medical Treatment, Repatriation, Temporary Duty Benefits

Case summary

F&R Date: 2024-01-23

The grievor was seeking compensation for his emergency evacuation for health reasons. While posted outside Canada with his spouse and children, the grievor had to be medically evacuated to Canada as a result of complications related to COVID-19. A few weeks after his return, the grievor was placed on temporary duty (TD) and given free accommodation in a residential housing unit on a Canadian Armed Forces base; at the same time, he continued to pay for his residence outside Canada, where he still had his household goods and effects. The chain of command decided not to send him back, but to assign him a posting in Canada. The grievor had been reimbursed for his actual and reasonable living expenses related to the emergency medical evacuation. The grievor also claimed meal expenses for himself and for his family, independently, in consideration of their respective situations (file 2022-130). Furthermore, the grievor requested compensation for the loss of operational allowances, since he had to be evacuated because of a lack of care and he allegedly met the required criteria (file 2022-311). Finally, the grievor claimed $500 for the loss of foodstuffs and perishable items, since his evacuation was due to an event beyond his control that he characterized as a natural disaster (file 2022-312).  

File 2022-130: the Emergency Watch and Response Centre awarded the grievor $11,082.60 for meals as part of his TD. When the grievor provided the appropriate receipts totalling $11,628.98, he received the difference of $546.38 and was reimbursed 50% of the amount established for the replacement of his personal effects. The Canadian Armed Forces applied the calculation under Foreign Service Directive (FSD) 41.2 for the reimbursement of meal expenses for the grievor and his family. 

File 2022-311: The Initial Authority (IA) denied the grievor's request since the grievor was supporting operations in a special duty area, and his posting was not actually considered as a deployment to a special duty area, which is required to meet allowance criteria.   

File 2022-312: The IA noted that the grievor was not entitled to the reimbursement for the loss of foodstuffs and perishable items, since his evacuation was not the result of hostilities, but rather a deterioration in his state of health. 

The Committee found that: 

• The grievor was entitled to the TD allowance and that the other members of his family were entitled to be reimbursed for their actual and reasonable expenses under section 41.2 of the FSD (file 2022-132); 
• The grievor did not meet the conditions for entitlement to the “Allowance – Loss of Operational Allowances” provided for in section 205.536(2) of the Compensation and Benefits Instructions (CBI) (file 2022-311); 
• The grievor was not entitled to reimbursement for the loss of foodstuffs and perishable items under CBI 10.25.03 because the circumstances of his evacuation did not match those described in FSD 64.8.1 for compensation to be paid. 

Therefore, the Committee indicated that the grievor had been aggrieved by the policy in force and recommended that the Final Authority (FA) grant redress in file 2022-130; however, as concerns files 2022-311 and 2022-312, the Committee indicated that the grievor had not been aggrieved by the policy in force and recommended that the FA not grant redress.