Allowances - Post Living Differential (PLD) [MERGED]

[Halifax Tar]

This bewilders me; why would you lose SDA?

I’ve deployed on several named ops and received AIRCRA, Ops FSP, RA, HA and HA bonus all at the same time or in some combination while being tax free status. Regardless of if it was Ops FSP, RA, HA, tax free we never lost our environmental allowance.

SDA is for normal hazards etc from the environment.

* assuming by hazardous duty allowance you mean RA - Risk Allowance

You have a better union.

We actually discovered we should have been paying SDA when in receipt of FSP ect and shut that down most rikki tik.

I got some back pay from it at least....

 

[PPCLI Guy]

This bewilders me; why would you lose SDA?

I’ve deployed on several named ops and received AIRCRA, Ops FSP, RA, HA and HA bonus all at the same time or in some combination while being tax free status. Regardless of if it was Ops FSP, RA, HA, tax free we never lost our environmental allowance.

SDA is for normal hazards etc from the environment.

* assuming by hazardous duty allowance you mean RA - Risk Allowance

When I was with the Brits on exchange in the mid 90s, we deployed to Bosnia just as the war ended. We had a Sqn from the QDG with us acting as an Infantry Company. They deployed to Bosnia from Germany...and while they were deployed, with their families still in Germany, they lost their equivalent of FDA. The only benefit any Brit received was a 20 Quid Phone card every month. At least the food was great....oh wait....

 

[SeaKingTacco]

When I was with the Brits on exchange in the mid 90s, we deployed to Bosnia just as the war ended. We had a Sqn from the QDG with us acting as an Infantry Company. They deployed to Bosnia from Germany...and while they were deployed, with their families still in Germany, they lost their equivalent of FDA. The only benefit any Brit received was a 20 Quid Phone card every month. At least the food was great....oh wait....

Wait…you don’t like deep fried everything?

 

[Halifax Tar]

When I was with the Brits on exchange in the mid 90s, we deployed to Bosnia just as the war ended. We had a Sqn from the QDG with us acting as an Infantry Company. They deployed to Bosnia from Germany...and while they were deployed, with their families still in Germany, they lost their equivalent of FDA. The only benefit any Brit received was a 20 Quid Phone card every month. At least the food was great....oh wait....

Do better on your aptitude test ?

Ducks for cover

 

[dimsum]

When I was with the Brits on exchange in the mid 90s, we deployed to Bosnia just as the war ended. We had a Sqn from the QDG with us acting as an Infantry Company. They deployed to Bosnia from Germany...and while they were deployed, with their families still in Germany, they lost their equivalent of FDA. The only benefit any Brit received was a 20 Quid Phone card every month. At least the food was great....oh wait....

From various conversations with Brit folks, their pay/benefits aren’t super great…

 

[PPCLI Guy]

The only time I really enjoyed Brit food was in Baghdad. The DFAC at UIII was.....a DFAC. Eggs came as powdered scrambled or boiled. But, the Canadian Embassy was hosted within the Brit Embassy, and they always had a full fat fry up on the go, with actual fried eggs. Over more than a year on that deployment, I discovered that I increasingly had business at the Embassy around breakfast time...

 

[markppcli]

When I was with the Brits on exchange in the mid 90s, we deployed to Bosnia just as the war ended. We had a Sqn from the QDG with us acting as an Infantry Company. They deployed to Bosnia from Germany...and while they were deployed, with their families still in Germany, they lost their equivalent of FDA. The only benefit any Brit received was a 20 Quid Phone card every month. At least the food was great....oh wait....

The Brit exchange officer we had lost all his allowances when we deployed to Latvia, he ended up getting slightly less than the Cpls.

 

[Humphrey Bogart]

When I was with the Brits on exchange in the mid 90s, we deployed to Bosnia just as the war ended. We had a Sqn from the QDG with us acting as an Infantry Company. They deployed to Bosnia from Germany...and while they were deployed, with their families still in Germany, they lost their equivalent of FDA. The only benefit any Brit received was a 20 Quid Phone card every month. At least the food was great....oh wait....

LOL but they only recruits Chavs from depressed ex-coal mining towns so they don't know any better

The Brit exchange officer we had lost all his allowances when we deployed to Latvia, he ended up getting slightly less than the Cpls.

Most of the Euro Armies are paid incredibly poorly. Why all the Exchange Officers that come here never go back.

Captain's here make what Colonels make in the French Army.

 

[dapaterson]

Most of the Euro Armies are paid incredibly poorly. Why all the Exchange Officers that come here never go back.

Captain's here make what Colonels make in the French Army.

However, the CAF doesn't have tetra packs of wine in the IMPS.

 

[Eaglelord17]

We are the best paid military in the world, it is just currently the cost of living in Canada has skyrocketed. That being said the cost of living is also extremely high in the UK.

 

[dimsum]

We are the best paid military in the world, it is just currently the cost of living in Canada has skyrocketed. That being said the cost of living is also extremely high in the UK.

We are not the best paid. The Australian Defence Force pays far more. One of the exchange FLT LTs (Capt-equivalent) made more than the Wing Commander.

But, the Aussie cost of living (and their housing) has skyrocketed, surpassing ours in most places. Ironically, ADF members feel the squeeze even more if they’re not in shacks, bc the vast majority of their bases are in / near their major cities. This, plus some other things, has led to higher attrition than the CAF.

 

[btrudy]

It doesn't matter if we're the best paid military in the world or the worst. We're not competing for people against other militaries.

What matters is how well we're paid relative to the other employers in Canada. You know, those ones that oh so many of our personnel are leaving us for because they pay better? If we want to stop the bleed, we should have been adjusting compensation so that people getting out would be taking a pay cut, not getting a pay raise if they were to take the training that we provided them and used it elsewhere.

Unfortunately, TB's attitude towards our compensation was the complete opposite, primarily because they don't really care about our retention crisis.

 

[Stoker]

It doesn't matter if we're the best paid military in the world or the worst. We're not competing for people against other militaries.

What matters is how well we're paid relative to the other employers in Canada. You know, those ones that oh so many of our personnel are leaving us for because they pay better? If we want to stop the bleed, we should have been adjusting compensation so that people getting out would be taking a pay cut, not getting a pay raise if they were to take the training that we provided them and used it elsewhere.

Unfortunately, TB's attitude towards our compensation was the complete opposite, primarily because they don't really care about our retention crisis.

I also think also the issue is that we've been tied what the public service unions get. Didn't work from home rights for the PS were the reason why the pay raises were smaller than expected? I also heard that the TB think we are well compensated. We should be compensated for the uniqueness and hardships we face in this career that no unionized employees have to face. For me my SDA allowed me to put up with the BS I have to go through at sea and when alongside, now people well removed from this are saying not so fast. I think the writing is on the wall that whatever the changes are coming will mean less money in most bottom lines at the end of the month. With the loss of PLD and less of a pay raise than expected make me question how long I want to stay around for. I'm not the only one.

 

[btrudy]

At the end of the day "We should be compensated for hardship x y and z" is going to fall flat.

"We need to be compensated better or else in 10 years you're not going to have a Navy left" is a tad more convincing, but presumably isn't working either. So anyways, I don't fault anyone who pops smoke and skedaddles, I would too if I wasn't juuuusssttt close enough to an immediate annuitant to make that an overall stupid decision.

 

[Quirky]

If you want deployments, the RCN, MH Sqns and LRP Sqns seem to be the place to be

If the LRP Sqns get something modern before I die, I would consider it. I can see the maintenance of the P8 be contracted out to avoid the RCAF being a pipeline to the AME airlines.

What matters is how well we're paid relative to the other employers in Canada.

I would like to see a trade by trade pay/benefits/pension comparison to equivalent civilian opportunities. I think there would be a lot of disappointment within the CAF.

 

[btrudy]

I would like to see a trade by trade pay/benefits/pension comparison to equivalent civilian opportunities. I think there would be a lot of disappointment within the CAF.

Man we're bleeding people for a reason. Yes, perhaps more so in some occupations than others, and those occupations probably correlate strongly with trades that also have in-demand skills. Folks aren't getting out because they love taking a pay cut.

 

[Quirky]

Man we're bleeding people for a reason. Yes, perhaps more so in some occupations than others, and those occupations probably correlate strongly with trades that also have in-demand skills. Folks aren't getting out because they love taking a pay cut.

It's probably a culmination of reasons that add up overtime and people leave for their own person choices. Like I've said in this thread already, low-pay doesn't apply in every trade as, I believe for example, tech trades in the RCAF are extremely well compensated compared to the civilian sector. You'd have to be a complete moron to leave the RCAF to wrench in the airlines. All the people I know that left went onto something else outside aviation. I don't know what it's like in the Navy, but I would guess that your skills and trade is likely 100% transferable and you can find something simliar in the civilian world for more money and less BS?

With the recent announcement of cost-cutting in the DND, things are only going to get worse. If that's even possible.

 

[Eaglelord17]

I know I left the Navy not because of pay rather how crappy it was in the other ways. We can always bitch about pay but at the end of the day we are actually very well compensated on that end.

60k is the Canadian average. The lowest paid in the CAF makes 42.5k without any of the other benefits included. That pay quickly rises. Excellent pension. Paid training and professional development at no cost to yourself.

Its the work environment which is more the issue with retention.

 

[Eye In The Sky]

If the LRP Sqns get something modern before I die, I would consider it. I can see the maintenance of the P8 be contracted out to avoid the RCAF being a pipeline to the AME airlines.

I can vouch that Norway, Sicily, Scotland, Key West, Waikiki, Guam, Tokyo were all still pretty jammy away trips even with the ol Greyhoud of Death …and I never paid for my own hotel room (or cottage in Scotland) once.

I had the ground floor here for a Det once. Having a P8 on the ramp vice a 140 wouldn’t have made it any more jammy; Mansefield Hotel - Bothy Ground Floor (Two Rooms, Sleeps 3)

 

[Quirky]

I can vouch that Norway, Sicily, Scotland, Key West, Waikiki, Guam, Tokyo were all still pretty jammy away trips even with the ol Greyhoud of Death …and I never paid for my own hotel room (or cottage in Scotland) once.

I’ve been to half of those places without having to pay for anything, the other places I’d rather go with the wife or avoid.