Personnel

Building better returns

Volume 11, No. 61, March 08, 2007
 
Making changes: Capt Lee Bowden, 19 CE Wks, updates the new Commander of Task Force Uruzgan, Col Has van Griensven, on work being done by 1RTF in Afghanistan. Capt Bowden is among engineers between the ranks of lieutenant and colonel who have just received a salary rise.
Photo by Cpl Ricky Fuller
IN 2006 Army offered Critical Category Retention Bonuses to selected ranks within five trades from the corps of RAE, RASigs and Aust Int. As a continuation of these initiatives, Army has extended these offers to another four trades.

These trades are ECN 270 Plant Operator, ECN 377 Supervisor Civil, ECN 273 Operator Electronic Warfare and ECN 269 Operator Petroleum. This is only one of a range of currently approved retention initiatives to be offered in 2007.

Decisions on which trades are approved are governed by investigating a range of factors: current trade asset/establishment – examined as a trade group and at each rank level to determine a rating; recruiting achievement – examined as a trend from this year compared to historical achievement; identified training restrictions affecting the trade this year; current 12 monthly trade separation rate for the trade – examined as a trend compared to the three-year trade separation rate for the trade and the whole of Army separation rate; and effect on Army capability.

For further information, visit the Stay Army website at http://intranet.defence.gov.au/ArmyWeb/sites/STAYARMY/.

Engineers’ get a lift
AS one of the first activities aimed at placing officer employment categories within the Graded Officer Pay Scale, the Defence Force Remuneration Tribunal (DFRT) heard the case for placement of ADF engineers last November.

On February 19, the DFRT handed down a historic interim decision which resulted in a yearly salary increase of $3662 for ADF engineers. Within the full-time Army, the increase will apply to all officers below the rank of brigadier in RAE, RASigs and RAEME. It is subject to review as part of the placement of the remainder of Army and ADF officer employment categories.

It may be some months before the necessary administrative arrangements are in place, however, it took effect on February 22 and payment will be backdated to that date.
WOs’ pay case
AS part of phase 3 of the Remuneration Reform Project the ADF made submissions to the DFRT in 2005 that the nature of work performed by the WO1-equivalent employment group had changed sufficiently to warrant the application of differential pay treatment.

The DFRT agreed that a separate scale would give WO1s the recognition they deserved as the most senior ORs in the ADF. On October 5 last year, about 95 per cent of WO1s in the ADF were placed in pay grade 2 of the eight pay-graded structure. The most recent WO pay scale, effective from November 16, 2006, can be found on the Defence intranet at http://intranet.defence.gov.au/pac.
For more information call (02) 626 57248 or email Lionel.Haynes@defence.gov.au.