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These changes will also incorporate the rolling of Qualification and Skill (Q&S) allowances into members’ salaries. Col Terry McCullagh, Director of Military Salaries and Allowances Policy, said the changes were part of Phase 4 of the Remuneration Reform Project. “The changes are the result of the 2001-02 review of ADF remuneration and a recommendation made from that review was to fold the Q&S elements of allowances into ORs salary,” he said. “ORs who have unique qualifications and skills, which they regularly use, should be recognised by a higher salary and not by a base salary and an allowance.” Effective August 9, ORs who now receive Q&S allowances for flying, submarine service, special action forces and special operations will be placed in a higher pay group that reflects their current salary plus their current Q&S allowance. Members who do not receive Q&S allowances will stay in their existing pay group. The “disability” component of flying, submarine, special operations and special action forces allowances will continue to be paid as they are now. Col McCullagh said the new pay group structure would offer many benefits to ORs, including greater reward for movement between pay groups. “Now, when employment categories are placed in higher pay groups by the Defence Force Remuneration Tribunal, ORs receive little reward for pay-group movement. RRP Phase 4 increases this reward to more than $2000,” he said. “Also, nobody will go backwards in salary. Some pay groups have been rounded up to fit neatly into the new structure. As a side-effect of this rounding, members in some pay groups will see their pay go up slightly.” The change in pay groups takes effect on August 9 and coincides with a 2.8 per cent pay rise. There will be a $2000 gap between each category from Pay Group 3 onwards. Col McCullagh said that apart from these changes, another amendment would be made to the ORs’ pay group structure in the middle of next year. “The Government in this year’s budget allocated funds for future refinement of the 16-graded pay group structure to fold it into eight pay groups,” he said. “This should take place from July 1 next year and there will be about a $4000 difference between pay groups.” This year a number of other remuneration cases will go before the DFRT, including pay cases for warrant officers and officers, over the next three months. Details of the Phase 4 pay group changes will be provided through Service channels including a road show, in future editions of Army and online at: http://intranet.defence.gov.au/pac/ and http://defence.gov.au/dpe/pac/. Related Story |
