West Midland Reserve Forces & Cadets’ Association. have announced that reservists are being carefully selected for call up, based on their skill set. The reservist will first inform their employer to ensure there are no compelling reasons why they cannot be released. Once agreed, employers will be sent a ‘call out notice’ with full details of financial compensation. Defence has no intention of mobilising reservists employed in medical, welfare or other key worker roles.
The key points behind the announcement of the Government’s calling up of reserve forces to bolster Military Aid to the Civil Authority (MACA) are outlined below.
Intelligent mobilisation:
- Over the last fortnight, single services have been exploring the availability and skills of reserve forces to help frame the MOD’s response to requests for MACA from local/national government departments.
- The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is expected to call up c. 3,000 volunteer reserves with the following skills:
- Medics
- Combat medics
- Logisticians (drivers, planning)
- Liaison and planning officers
- Engineers
- This will be an intelligent rather than general mass mobilisation; reservists who are classed as key workers should remain in their normal roles. Information on rights and responsibilities is available at https://www.gov.uk/employee-reservist/mobilisation
- Employers with essential roles for the nation’s smooth running should protect essential members of staff/key workers.
- The initial 3,000 people may be followed by additional call ups.
Duration of the requirement:
- There are two types of mobilisation:
- Short term – Reserve Service Days (RSDs) to help the overall mobilisation effort. This may consist of 1-2 weeks service (similar to normal annual release of personnel) to help units mobilise other personnel and resources.
- Full – plan for 6 months. By law it can be no more than 12 months. This will only become a compulsory mobilisation once reservists and employers have both consented, at which point employers will receive financial compensation for releasing their reservists.
- Ex-regulars with a reserve commitment (i.e. left relatively recently) may also be mobilised in small numbers, but that is still TBC. You may have some of these amongst your veteran employees.
- Defence aims to give at least 28 days’ notice, but in the circumstances, MOD would be grateful if this could be expedited to ASAP for those who are available sooner.
Mobilisation process:
- The usual mobilisation process is being somewhat truncated in an attempt to speed up, where possible, the normal 28 day call out procedure; where this can be expedited, this would be helpful.
- Identified reservists with the appropriate skill sets will be emailed a mobilisation pack directly via their unit chains of command. This will include an Employer Notification Letter (ENL), that they should send to their line manager, and where known/possible their organisation’s HR team.
- Employers are encouraged to have their HR teams communicate with Line Managers of known reservists to ensure that any ENL received from an employee is passed to HR.
- The ENL will include details of financial and employer support available
What can you do?
- Use your internal HR data to assemble a list of known reservists. If possible, widen this to include military veterans
- Check this data for new/missing reservists that your organisation employs. If possible, widen this to include military veterans
- Confirm internally which reservists can be released and ensure that they are given the HR contact email to send ENL to.
- Use any internal Armed Forces Covenant Champions networks to bolster this
- Consider how you will support these people, and reintegrate them at the end of their duty
- Use your own communications channels and networks to spread this and future information as far as possible.
For the latest updates, save the link here: Defence Relationship Management – GOV.UK