# 2025-030 Pay and Benefits, Pilot's Pay and Promotion

Case summary

F&R Date: 2026-03-11

The grievor disputed his Pay Increment (PI) on conversion to the new Pilot pay tables, contending that his slotting should not have been based on his Time in Rank as a Winged Pilot. He submitted that on 31 March 2021 he had completed an additional three years of service as a Pilot after having reached PI 10 and thus should have been slotted at Captain (Capt) PI 16. The grievor explained that calculating years of service from when a Pilot is paid under Compensation and Benefits Instructions for the Canadian Forces 204.215, Pay – Officers – Pilots – Lieutenant-Colonel, Major and Captain for conversion purposes, causes an inconsistent application of the policy for Pilots and goes against the intent of Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS) Order 030/21 – Transition to New Pilot Pay Rates as it is written. As redress, he requested an additional PI on conversion, based on being converted as a Capt PI 10 plus three years of service.

The Director General Air Strategic Resources and Air Reserves, acting as the Initial Authority (IA), denied redress. The IA confirmed that the grievor's PI on conversion was correctly calculated from the date he attained Wings, as a Capt at PI 10 plus two years of service. 

The Committee found that in accordance with Canadian Forces General Message 209/11, the grievor would have reached PI 10 in 2017, thus would have accumulated slightly over three years of service on 31 March 2021. The Committee therefore noted that, according to the conversion charts in Annex A of CDS Order 030/21, the grievor should have been slotted a PI higher than he was. The Committee also noted, however, that by awarding Pilots a PI greater than PI 10 which only existed effective 1 April 2021, based on either years spent at Capt PI 10, or previously credited qualifying service in the case of skilled applicants, is essentially applying the new Pilot pay structure retroactively. As such, similar to previous files addressing Pilot pay rates following the implementation of the new pay structure, the Committee found that there were issues with the authorities used to allocate additional PIs on conversion. The Committee further found that as the grievor's rate of pay did not decrease on conversion to the new Pilot pay tables, he had not been aggrieved and recommended that the Final Authority not grant redress.