# 2024-216 Pay and Benefits, Compassionate Status, Specialist Pay

Case summary

F&R Date: 2025-09-18

The grievor challenged the time it took his chain of command (CoC) to process his request for withdrawal of compassionate status, which delayed his participation in the Qualification Level 5A (QL5A) course. He felt that he had been penalized financially and morally by not being able to start the course in March 2021, which would have made him eligible for the Level 1 Specialist pay provided for his occupation. He invoked Canadian Forces Military Police Academy Standing Order 3-330, which recommends registering for the QL5A course within 60 days of the second anniversary of successfully completing Qualification Level 3. In his opinion, he should have been registered in 2020. As compensation, he asked for retroactive Level 1 Specialist pay from March 2021 until he obtained his QL5A.

In 2023, an analyst prepared a decision summary for the Initial Authority (IA) recommending that the grievance be denied, noting that compensation is contingent upon successful completion of training and assignment to a position managed by the occupational authority. As the IA did not reach a decision by the deadline, the grievor requested that the grievance be referred to the Final Authority (FA).

The Committee found that the grievor was not eligible for Level 1 Specialist pay retroactively, since he did not obtain the QL5A until October 2022. The Committee acknowledged that the grievor had submitted a request for withdrawal of his compassionate status in February 2021 but that the professional evaluation required for this purpose did not take place until March 2022. That delay prevented his CoC from recommending his reloading in a course earlier. The grievor finally started the first course that was available in the language of his choice in September 2022. Although the CoC could have processed the request more quickly, the Committee found no evidence of gross negligence. Moreover, Defence Administrative Order and Directive 5003-6, in force at the time, did not impose any specific deadline for the withdrawal of such status. As a result, the Committee recommended that the FA not grant the grievor redress.