The purpose of this next one, if it were to materialise would be to stem outflow until Future force 2020. Provisions were made to extend the current one by 2 years (extract below) so I'd say the AFPRB bloke is just the tea wetter, I believe evidence has shown them that a 60% uptake in FRI1, would allow a 4 year FRI2 to 'fill the gap' until FF2020.
A Post SDSR announcement in October would give 6 months before April release, allowing visibility of 'how well it goes down'. And would certainly be cheaper than extra pay for engineers, as only those who the RN will benefit from will get it, sorry sick chits! (Also it negates other branches complaining about pay bands!)
It would obviously be intended to reduce VO, most who say "I'm staying anyway, so it's free money" think FRIs are a bad idea, and that they don't work, fair one, it's a no brainer, take it, but to the RN; it's a guarantee of having someone SQEP in a position that would take years to get someone in as a SQEP replacement, which would leave gaps somewhere else. It would also help in bringing salaries in line with those available in civvie street, this has been done with Pilots, however £100,000 is a bit more juicy!
They are a form of commitment bonus for personnel meeting the criteria, and the AFPRB obviously openly recommends commitment bonuses, and proposes a second FRI subject to terms in the March 15 report. Quoting 'financial provision may have been made' subject to further evidence.
If it were say to have a ROS of 4 years from April 16, would it be a coincidence that this happens to be the date most who took FRI1 can submit notice, taking us up to April 2020 when FF2020 'should' have put us on the right track. A form of leak stopping until full implementation of, and flow through of SQEP personnel from LET upwards.
From the March 15 AFPRB Report
- We were also asked to endorse an FRI aimed at improving the retention of Engineering General Service (EGS) Petty Officer (PO) and Chief Petty Officer (CPO) Engineering Technicians (ETs), to reduce VO, while a significant programme of non-remunerative measures enabled a sustainable recovery of the EGS sub-branch. The proposal was for the introduction of an FRI of £21,000 for three years return of service for POETs and of £24,000 for three years return of service for CPOETs; and that the FRI would be open from 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2016, but with a possible extension of a further two years.
- 3.80. In considering the proposal, we noted that the total cost of the FRI was very large, at £35.6m in the first year, and expressed concern over how the money would be found. We noted that redundancies had been made previously in this cadre and that we had considered the overall situation regarding engineers in the UK. MOD told us that at
the time of the redundancies, the staffing situation for this group was not critical. Navy command judged this situation as one of the highest priority issues and would fund the measure.
- 3.81. We endorsed the proposals, with the proviso that the FRI runs until end March 2016. While financial provision may have been made for an extension out to end March 2018, we wish to be provided with further evidence before we endorse any such extension.
- 2.33. The Armed Forces have faced challenges in retaining engineers in recent years. In order to understand better the issues around this group, we looked at the labour market for engineers and considered pay comparisons between engineers in the Armed Forces and in civilian life.
- 2.34. Information gathered from various sources confirms that there has been a UK-wide shortage of engineers in recent years. This skill shortage and “market pull” for engineers with high technical skills has been reflected in relatively high engineer VO rates across the Armed Forces.
- 2.35. Information from MOD highlighted a number of engineering trades in the military which were experiencing shortfalls in staffing. These existed in all three Services, but were predominately in the Naval Service. Approaches to managing retention, such as Financial Retention Incentives (FRIs), have been introduced temporarily to alleviate the problem, with varying success across the relevant groups.