# 2024-200 Pay and Benefits, Land Duty Allowance

Case summary

F&R Date: 2025-04-16

The grievor, a Reserve Force (Res F) member held against the establishment of a Land Duty Allowance (LDA) designated unit, challenged the interpretation of the LDA policy resulting in the recalculation of her LDA points and recovery of overpayments. An audit conducted after the grievor's component transfer from the Res F to the Regular Force found that she did not meet the criteria set out in Compensation and Benefits Instructions (CBI) 205.33 to accumulate LDA points during two periods of training, resulting in monthly LDA overpayments over a 10-year period.

The Director General Compensation and Benefits, acting as the Initial Authority (IA), denied the grievance. Referring to the definition of posted at CBI 205.33(1) and provisions relating to Reserve Service at subparagraph 9.07(1)(b) of the Queen's Regulations and Orders for the Canadian Forces, the IA found that, for the purposes of the LDA policy, the grievor was posted at non-LDA designated units to attend her Qualification level (QL) 3 and QL5 courses, and was thus not entitled to LDA or LDA point accumulation during those periods. As such, the overpayments that were not statute-barred had to be recovered.

The Committee reviewed the applicable versions of CBI 205.33 and disagreed with the IA's interpretation of the LDA policy. Whereas the definition of posting that was found at CBI 205.33(1) included attach posting, the policy had and continues to provide entitlement to LDA during a period of attach posting, with the entitlement ceasing on the 181st continuous day. Applying the definition of posting to entitlement in the manner which the IA does would render this provision inoperable. The provisions regarding the date at which LDA entitlement ceased found at CBI 205.33(6) had to be properly applied to the circumstances of the grievor's employment during the periods in question. The Committee found that the grievor met the criteria for LDA point accumulation up to the 180th day of her QL3 course and was entitled to LDA benefits for the duration of her QL5 course.

The Committee recommended that the Final Authority order the recalculation of the grievor's LDA point accumulation and LDA payments, with reimbursement of any amount recovered from her to date that exceeds any collectable overpayment