The B Word
I would hope by now things are better understood but I am talking about April 18, just over a year into the new system. Facing a second month with no RRP(F) as my unit HR had no idea how to calculate it, I was passed directly to DBS. Their answer was ' we have no idea how to calculate this, if you find out let us know'. In fairness the guy placed me on a low rate to ensure that I at least got something until they could figure out how to pay someone in my position. As to SO2 Pay, they unfortunately involved a civil servant clown from 'the centre' who spends too much time sitting on his elbows. He spouted some complete horse manure about PAS and the new 2 tier system showing that he had no understanding of aircrew who had been PAS from the start in 2003. The SO2 wrote to their SO1 stating that this information was incorrect but the SO1 did not want to get involved so kicked it back to the SC for them to decide; bear in mind that the DB in my case had asked the SO2 to provide the answer as an SME which they did strongly in my favour. Unfortunately the DB was dazzled by the civil servant and totally ignored the advice of his SME and did not uphold my case.
The reason everyone struggled with how to pay us is that the policy was designed as a transition platform for those in Service at the time and I think that worked ok. However, there was no policy to cover rejoiners and there were paragraphs in JSP 754 which did not mean what they stated. Now that the transition period has ended there should be no issue but for a number of years it was pot luck on how you got paid.
I had finally had enough and chose to leave but DBS had the last laugh. As I was going out the door they decided that they had actually over paid me and wanted their money back. I appealed with the full support of my chain of command up to Gp Capt rank and won the appeal for lack of a policy to support their claim. So they took the money anyway and refused to give it back. If you think getting help from support staff is hard when in uniform, it's impossible once you leave. There is obviously much more to all of this but not for a public forum. I stand by my statement, the RAF is not a fair and equitable employer.