Reservists to Be Called Up: What Do Employers Need to Know?

SaBRE, the campaign set up by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to provide information to employers, announced yesterday that from Monday 13 January 2003, reservists will start to receive letters from the MoD telling them that they have been called up for military duty.

If the loss of an employee would cause serious harm to the business - including loss of reputation or goodwill, or the ability of the business to produce goods and services, or carry out research and development - employers can apply for that employee to be exempted from being called up, or for the call up to be deferred. Applications are unlikely to be successful if the skills of the employee can be replaced reasonably easily.

Employers can also apply for financial awards if employees are called up. The standard award covers:

- the costs of replacement of the employee called up (upper limit 6% of the employee's annual salary or £2,400, whichever is the lower). - on-going costs; for example, agency fees (upper limit 4% of reservist's weekly salary or £31 a week, whichever is the lower multiplied by the number of weeks the employee is away on military duty).

- costs of re-training of the reservist when he or she comes back to work (maximum award GBP 2,000).

If the standard award doesn't cover costs incurred adequately employers may also apply for a Hardship award.

Clearly, employers should be asking their employees to tell them immediately if they are reservists so that employers can assess whether they can release those employees - if they are called up - and to allow contingency arrangements to be put in place to cover the work of those employees who are released.

A freephone helpline (0800 389 5459) has been set up by the MoD to assist employers. Alternatively, information is available on the SaBRE website at www.sabre.mod.uk.
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