Australian Government, Department of Defence

Media Room | Reports and Publications | Careers and Recruiting | Industry and Contracts

<em>Army</em> :: The Soldier's Newspaper

Top Stories | Letters |

Personnel | Lifestyle |

People Page | Sports |

Top Stories

Changes to war service leave By Cpl Andrew Hetherington and Sue Scown Edition 1168, June 14, 2007

CHANGES to how ADF members’ war service leave (WSL) is accrued will take effect on July 1. The changes intend to make the calculation of WSL fairer for members, while also simplifying its administration. Under the new rules, WSL will be calculated on the number of days, or part-days, spent in a defined area of operation (AO), instead of the previous method calculated based on the number of completed months. The entitlement of one-and-a-half days WSL for every month in an AO (or 18 days a year) remains the same. Bob Jones, Acting Assistant Director Domestic Conditions-Policy said the new method of accrual would make it fairer for members. “For example if someone previously went into an AO on February 1 and stayed there for 28 days, they would get one-and a half days WSL and anyone else who went in any other month and did 28 days service got absolutely no WSL,” he said. “So unless you completed a full month of service and in some cases that is 30 or 31 days, you got absolutely nothing.” Under the revised system members will accrue WSL for every day, including part days, they are in an operational area. The main benefits to members will be for those people who otherwise would not have accrued any WSL for a part month, they will now accrue a proportion of one and a half days of WSL for the proportion of the month that they now serve. Mr Jones said it had been a long process to make the change to daily WSL accrual. “It has taken over a year to sort out and implement the changes. One of the reasons it occurred is we had changed the other forms of leave to daily accrual, so it was thought appropriate to bring WSL into line also,” he said. For members who are serving in operational areas and are accruing WSL before, during and after July 1, their WSL will be calculated by the new daily method. “Those people who commence a period of leave on July 1 will have their WSL calculated as two separate periods – as completed months before July 1 and on a daily basis from July 1 onwards,” Mr Jones said. WSL will no longer be accrued during short absences from an AO. Previously, absences from an AO of less than 15 days counted towards the accrual of WSL. Under the new policy, WSL will only accrue for actual days, or part-days, spent in the AO. For further information see Defgram 302/2007, visit the Pacman website at http://intranet.defence.gov.au/pac/ or http://www.defence.gov.au/dpe/pac, or address questions to the Director of Entitlements through the chain of command.


HOW IT ADDS UP At the moment, to accrue WSL a member must serve a minimum of one month in an AO. The original reason for this method of accrual was that it made manual calculations easier. The downside to this approach is that WSL has been granted unfairly between members. For example: Scenario 1 – Cpl White serves 30 days in April in the AO and accrues 1.5 days WSL, whereas Cpl Smith accrues nothing after serving 29 days in April. Scenario 2 – Sgt Brown serves one month, one day in the AO and receives the same WSL entitlement as Sgt Jones, who has served one month, 25 days. Other attempts to keep calculations simple meant that: absences from the AO of less than 15 days counted towards the WSL accrual. there was a qualifying period of one month on arrival in an AO, or after an absence of more than 14 days.

Subscriptions |

Past Editions |