Peacetime service for operation

CONDITIONS OF SERVICE

By LT Simone Heyer

LAC Stephen Epps gives clean water to a Banda Aceh resident.

Photo by CPL Belinda Mepham.

OPERATION Sumatra Assist is peacetime service. Personnel Policy and Employment Conditions Branch has released conditions of service that reflect this.

Director Service Conditions Group Captain John Price said the conditions would apply to those ADF personnel assigned to Operation Sumatra Assist and within the specified area declared for the operation, which includes parts of Malaysia and Thailand also affected by the tsunami.

“Normal pay and allowances continue to apply to the operation, including seagoing, field and flying allowances – as well as separation allowance and the usual rehabilitation and compensation rules,” GPCAPT Price said.

“While normal taxation arrangements apply, warlike and non-warlike conditions of service, such as we have seen previously in East Timor or the Solomon Islands, definitely do not apply.”

ADF members on Operation Sumatra Assist, excluding those posted to HMA Ships, come under short-term duty overseas conditions, including payment of a daily rate of hardship allowance. Different rates apply, depending on the location of service.

GPCAPT Price said that while members posted to HMA Ships were not entitled to short-term duty overseas conditions, hardship allowance would apply if they were required to go ashore.

Hardship allowance is payable for each day or part day of service on the ground in the area of assistance. The normal 28-day qualifying period is waived.

GPCAPT Price said the conditions of service would be reviewed as the situation developed.

For more details visit http://www.defence.gov.au/dpe/pac or for those with access to the Defence Intranet, more details can be found here.

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