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The positive components are considered to be:
•Job Security – In an uncertain and volatile workplace, Service personnel benefit from being able to work within the same organisation, albeit within different divisions or units, for asignificant number of years depending on the length of their engagement.
•Training, adventure training and personal development – Facilitates career progression, enhanced skills and increased responsibility,where appropriate.
•Promotion and Early responsibility – Service careers provide earlier opportunities for holding positions of responsibility,than are typically experienced by those of similar ages or career stages than in civilian occupations.
The negative components concern:
•Turbulence – Closely linked to spousal/partner employment as well, changing jobs both in terms of type of job and the geographical location of the work as well as having to move home, is hugely unsettling. Whilst civilians also change jobs, they tend to do so less frequently than Service personnel and with greater choice of when and where.
•Spousal/partner employment – Finding and maintaining acareer is disproportionately difficult for the spouse/partner of aService person due to the turbulence of frequently changing jobs and location and the impact of deployments. This affects not only spousal/partner career progression but also longer-term earnings and pension benefits.
•Danger – Service personnel have agreater chance of being exposed to the threat of real or perceived violence, in a physically unsafe or uncomfortable environment and where the danger of death or injury in the course of their duties is greater than that which most civilians are exposed to.
•Separation – Separation does not just mean when Service personnel are deployed on operations away from their
The positives and negatives are considered on balance by the AFPRB, and arecommendation made as to what the percentage of X-Factor should be mindful of changes to both service and civilian life since the previous
review.Itisimportant to remember that X-Factor represents the special conditions of Service, both positive and negative, and should not be viewed as compensation for the negative aspects alone.
and for whatever purpose.
• Hours of Work – payment of overtime.
• Stress, personal relationships and impact of the job – Depending on the level of deployment and nature of their tasks, Armed Forces personnel may experience signifi cantly greater levels of stress than would normally be seen in civilian occupations. The Armed Forces may also experience additional stress because of overstretch owing to operational reasons.
•Leave – Leave can be lost for service reasons. Furthermore, it may be diffi cult for Service personnel to take leave when they wish, or plan ahead as a result of the unpredictability of Service commitments.
• Autonomy, management control and fl exibility – Due to the unique nature of their work, Armed Forces personnel operate within atightly controlled, disciplined structure. In general, civilians have significantly more freedom and flexibility in making decisions which impact upon their immediate working environment and how they go about completing tasks.
•Individual and collective rights – Individual legal rights are enjoyed by UK citizens and by those with aright to remain and work in the UK, for example, Working Time legislation and Trade Union membership. Not all of these pieces of legislation are applicable to members of the Armed Forces who are also subject to the additional restrictions of Service law.
•Travel to work – Includes time, method and cost. This varies for the Armed Forces depending upon the nature of their current job and deployment, if
any.Again, this mitigates the lack of choice that many Service personnel have in terms of location.
Further information
Do look out for the 2018 AFPRB Report on the Government’s website, which will explain the evidence they considered in their latest review of X-Factor and the recommended rate of X-Factor for Armed Forces personnel:
gov.uk/government/ organisations/armed-forces-pay-review-body
The cockpit of aRoyal Air Force A400M Atlas from 70 Sqn based at RAF Brize Norton.
raf-ff.org.uk |Autumn 2018 | ENVOY
Images ©Crown Copyright.
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