An interesting one - if he was full time, presumably he would have got a war pension or whatever it is called these days which would have covered his loss of earnings, albeit on a lower salary! I do sympathise with this chap - despite the flack reservists inevitably come in for as 'part-timers' the reserves exist because they are a cheap option for the MoD. I remember a figure of 1/7th the cost of a full-time equivalent being waved around some time back. If the MoD chooses to try to save money in this way, they are sometimes going to have to front up when things go wrong. I don't buy "he knew what he was signing up for" arguments. We all know/knew, but we still expect support, and why should he risk losing his home and his no-doubt hard-earned lifestyle because he was one of the good ones prepared to give something back?
I'm not saying the MoD shold fork out whenever a reservist says they'd have got more money in civvie street, but I do believe a duty of care exists. Could we really function without reservists these days? If they don't believe they and their families will be looked after if they are hurt or killed while serving then they're not going to stick around are they?
It's a tough one to call, and obviously the sort of issue that can only be dealt with on a case-by-case basis, but as we use reservists more now that we have for many decades, I doubt this will be the last of these that we see.