Travel on Special Leave

[Mediman14]

Does anyone know where to find any ref stating that a Mil Per cannot travel on Special Leave? For example (2 Special days granted by the Commanding Officer prior to a course greater than 30 days)

 

[dapaterson]

If you are travelling for duty purposes you are on duty, not on leave.  Maybe the question is whether you can take special leave after travelling to the course location.

 

[Biohazardxj]

Canadian Forces Leave Manual talks about this type of leave.

Special leave prior to a course is intended for you to take care of any personal admin you may have.  (IE find a someone to feed your fish).  Though there is nothing stopping you from traveling while on special leave, you must remember this: If you were to be involved in an accident en-route it COULD have implications with regards to your pension or any disability payments if you were injured.  This is because you would be considered "on leave" and not "on duty".

 

[DAA]

Does anyone know where to find any ref stating that a Mil Per cannot travel on Special Leave? For example (2 Special days granted by the Commanding Officer prior to a course greater than 30 days)

Huh?  The reason behind granting this type of leave and in these type of circumstances, is for you to get your personal matters sorted out prior to leaving your current location.

CF Leave Manual 5.10.01  (http://www.forces.gc.ca/en/caf-community-benefits/leave-policy.page)

"In addition, Special Leave (Relocation) may also be granted, at the discretion of the home unit CO, for members who are away from their home unit on duty for operations/training exercises, career courses or incremental taskings within or outside Canada."

I've taken the liberty of highlighting the important part in all of this.  Special Leave is NOT an entitlement in cases such as yours/this.

Use it wisely!

 

[Eye In The Sky]

Perhaps the OP is wondering why Special Leave cannot be used to travel to the duty location instead of Ann Leave.  I've seen this question asked before where the member didn't understand the purpose of special leave and why is cannot be used on the official travel for duty; say where a member is auth to use POMV at cost comparison rates, has to travel 1400kms to the course location and is required to use Ann Leave to cover the required days after the 'travel day'. 

IIRC, even in that scenario, if you require 3 x days travel (500km/day), the first 2 days of travel would officially 'ann leave' with the last day being the official travel day and you would not be considered 'on duty' for 2 of the 3 days.  Or it is the other way around?  Can't quite recall.

 

[SupersonicMax]

A reference lives in the CFTDTIs, Section 8.41 para (5) :

(5) (Paid Leave) A member who requests to use a
PMV — rather than the more economical and
practical mode of transportation selected by the
approving authority — and who uses that PMV on
duty travel shall take one day’s paid leave, after the
first day, for every 500 kilometres travelled.

(6) (Paid Leave) If a member — who requests to
use a PMV — has insufficient paid leave remaining
for any travel in excess of the more economical and
practical mode of transportation selected by the
approving authority, then the member shall not be
authorized to use their PMV as requested.

It is talking about "paid leave", not "annual leave".  Special leave is a type of paid leave therefore if the leave approving authority authorizes and not other direction exists, I would think individual would be allowed to travel on Special, Weekend or any other type of paid leave.

Special leave is not given for any reason: the CF Leave Manual provides specific guidance on when to guide such leave (and it is paid leave).  A CO may even reward an individual for exemplary work and give him short leave for his travel (up to 2 for any given month) and that would still be considered paid leave.

BLUF:  I have never seen any substantiation to deny a PMV travel for a member on Special/Short leave.  It is paid leave and IAW CFTDTIs.

 

[Eye In The Sky]

check.  I guess its up to a CO to decide if he/she grants the Special then.

 

[DAA]

check.  I guess its up to a CO to decide if he/she grants the Special then.

Pretty much and sometimes, people can be real sticklers over this stuff, even to the extent to which the OP has mentioned above and for what I think the reasoning may be.  But unless they wish to add some more info, we shall never know.

I've seen everything from requests being turned down, to the CoC telling them they will take it.

 

[CountDC]

, I would think individual would be allowed to travel on Special, Weekend or any other type of paid leave.

Weekends are not considered paid leave.

 

[kratz]

Weekends are not considered paid leave.

Ummm...Shift workers can claim weekends IAW the leave manual.

 

[SupersonicMax]

According to the leave manual:

1.1.19 Paid Service

Paid Service means all service except:

periods of Leave Without Pay and Allowances (LWOP) other than LWOP for maternity and parental purposes;
periods when a Primary Reserve reservist has an Exemption From Duty and Training (ED&T) other than ED&T for maternity or parental purposes;
periods when a Primary Reserve reservist is Non Effective Strength (NES);
service for which a limitation of Payments (LOP) has been imposed under QR&O 203.20, Officers -Regular Force - Limitation of Payments; or
periods for which forfeiture has been imposed under QR&O 208.30, Forfeitures - Officers and Non-Commissioned Members, or QR&O 208.31, Forfeitures, Deductions and Cancellations -When No Service Rendered.

No mention of weekend in the exhaustive list of exclusion therefore I think it is considered paid service.

 

[Ludoc]

If you look at Chapter 5, Annex B, Table 2 of The Leave Manual, it states the leave may be taken:

Prior to departure from home unit on duty for a period of 14 to 30 days

Prior to departure from home unit on duty for a period of 31 days or more

Immediately upon return to home unit from duty for a period of 14 days

If the leave is to be taken prior to departure and after returning you can not use it for travel.

 

[SupersonicMax]

You are indeed right for this specific situation (and the OP's situation), however any other kind of leave would work.

 

[CountDC]

Paid Service and Paid Leave are two different things.

1.1.12 Leave

Leave means absence from duty approved by an approving authority. This includes long leave pursuant to QR&O 16, Section 2; and short leave, pursuant to QR&O 16, Section 3.

1.1.24 Working Day

Working day means a day of paid service on which an officer or non-commissioned member is regularly scheduled to perform duty.

Weekends are considered normal time off and not paid leave which is a good thing because who wants to do leave passes for every weekend. 

As for shift workers our weekends are not really defined by the Mon - Fri work week and Sat/Sun weekends off.  For example my work week is Tue to Fri and weekend is Sat to Mon except on an exercise weekend.  Thus the only time that Sat to Mon would be considered paid leave is if I requested leave for the exercise weekend. I have also worked a rotating schedule of 3 days on, 4 days off, 4 days on, 3 days off, repeat so Sat/Sun was not always a weekend off for us and required us to either take leave or trade with someone if scheduled to work that weekend.

1.1.22 Shift Worker

A shift worker is a person who does not necessarily have a working day schedule of Monday to Friday with Saturday, Sunday and designated and/or statutory holidays scheduled as non-working days.

Regardless, it has been a long time since I have seen an issue with travel on weekends or paid leave periods such as annual or short.  Specials do have special rules as noted so it is best to check the speciic policy on the type of special.  Special XMas for example does not have the same restriction on travel.