F e d e r a t i o n N e w s
Federation Your Say on Pay
W
e sought your evidence to influence the pay debate and you gave it to us in spades!
Thank you to the hundreds of you out there who filled in our survey. We suspected that there were many of you out there with strong views on pay and related subjects and you certainly proved it. Your answers and views helped us enormously in providing full and comprehensive evidence to those who determine future pay awards.
First, some background. The RAF Families Federation was invited to contribute evidence to the Armed Forces Pay Review Body (AFPRB) as part of their research to influence the military pay award for 2009. The AFPRB consider remuneration issues in the widest sense – from pay to pensions, accommodation/garage charges to financial retention incentives, commitment bonuses to benefits (formerly known as ‘allowances’!) and a range of financial initiatives aimed at improving recruitment & retention, including assisted house purchase schemes, etc.
Perhaps the most surprising result of the survey was the level of attention this month- long survey attracted from an audience often described as ‘survey fatigued’. Many added copious notes to the questionnaires, indicating to us that remuneration is a subject of considerable interest to the Service person and family members.
On completion of the survey, the Chairman of the RAF FF submitted a comprehensive letter of evidence to the AFPRB and was invited to give oral evidence alongside her equivalents in the Naval and Army Federations. What follows are extracts from her report:
“The RAF FF noted that the recent House of Commons Defence Committee Report on Recruitment & Retention in the Armed Forces commented that: ‘The overall basic pay package does not appear to be a major cause of Armed Forces personnel
www.raf-families-federation.org.uk
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leaving the Services’. The RAF FF believes that remuneration issues sit just below the surface in many individual’s decision-making and that, when taken into account with other factors, remuneration may well be one of the factors that impacts negatively on retention.
“Building on the evidence we provided to the AFPRB last year, and based on evidence gathered from our Issues database and from Unit Liaison Visits, we believe RAF personnel continue to feel under-valued. Pay and benefits are, for many, a negative retention factor which, whilst masked by other high profile factors such as the operational tempo, the increased incidence of separation, and the condition of Service-provided accommodation (both married and single) should not be ignored when the next pay round is being considered.”
“The strongest messages we drew from our survey were that:
A significant majority of junior ranks are dissatisfied with both basic pay and the allowances package;
Most personnel view home ownership as a high priority and believe that the MOD should support home purchase;
Commitment Bonuses and Financial Retention Incentives are seen by many as divisive, short- term fixes that can contribute to the feeling of being undervalued, particularly for the more experienced, long-serving personnel who are not eligible for these payments.
RAF personnel and their families are reasonably well-informed about pay and regularly make comparisons between different trades and branches within the RAF as well as comparing their package with equivalent sectors in the civilian employment sector. “
A detailed summary of the key findings is located on our website
atwww.raf-ff.org. uk under the heading ‘Federation News’ but here we thought it would be useful to publish some of the comments made, many of which
have been included in our report to the AFPRB to add colour and depth to the report.
Rest assured though, even if you don’t see your own comments here, we have made use of them elsewhere! Since we submitted our report to the AFPRB, we have also sent summaries of your comments to Chief of Staff Personnel (COS Pers), the Service Personnel and Veterans Agency (JPA and Pensions), Defence Estates and the Housing Colonel, so there are a lot of senior staffs who now know exactly what you’re thinking!
General data of those who completed the survey • 1,253 people completed the survey.1,126 serving and 127 non-serving.
• Personnel of all ranks from LAC to Air Cdre+ responded.
• 78% of respondents were aged 31-55. • 87% of respondents were either married/in a civil partnership or in a long-term/established relationship.
• Respondents were located throughout the UK also Germany, Cyprus, USA and other overseas units.
• The stations providing most responses were: Wittering, Leuchars, Cranwell, Lyneham.
Basic Pay “There seems to be an ever decreasing gap between upper and lower pay bands. Whilst I accept that those in lower pay bands need an incentive to join/stay on, this is undermining
Winter 2008 15
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