Cheers Ducati -
drilling down through different bits all I could actually find about 'what the employer gets' was
1.The Standard Award, one of three types of award available,
covers actual net additional costs incurred by the employer,
as a result of mobilisation of Reservist employees. This
includes both initial, non-recurring costs – such as
advertising for and interviewing replacement staff– and
additional recurring costs – such as agency fees and/or
overtime undertaken by other staff to compensate for
the mobilised employee’s absence. In both cases, the
amount that can be claimed is capped, according to the
Reservist’s rank.
...which strongly suggests that an employer isn't automatically covered for expenses - although lots of sites suggest this is being reworked. So your chief financial officer happens to be a Lance Corporal and....maybe you won't be getting all that much to help replace them!
I still think the goverment should pay for full time forces, I've still not seen anything to suggest employers don't actually subsidise the government when TA's deploy.
Dave