Publication:Sea Talk Summer 2008/New pay structure agreed

By CMDR Wendy Bullen

GORPS gets ‘go ahead’ from DFRT

Sailors with experience, supervisory responsibilities and ability to develop technical expertise will be the big winners in the new Graded Other Ranks Pay Structure (GORPS) signed off by the Defence Force Remuneration Tribunal last month.

The DFRT decision on November 8 is a major shakeup, reducing the old 16 pay grade system to 10 (see transition graph above) and increasing the difference between pay grades and some ranks.

It represents several years work and has been hailed by the Chief of Navy as “a significant milestone for pay reform and, most importantly, for our sailors”.

“It is the first time Navy has considered all categories together since 1995, and this has ensured that the relationships between categories and other Services have been closely examined,” VADM Crane said.

The Acting Director General of Navy Personnel and Training, CAPT Mark Hill, said GORPS will give the Navy a sailor’s pay system more in line with conditions outside the ADF.

“It will also improve the dollar amounts between pay grades,” he said. “It means more pay for individuals with experience, or who have supervisory responsibilities, or who push on to develop their own technical expertise.”

GORPS includes agreement to a number of revised category and skill grade placement for ET, MT, AT, CIS, CT, CSO, CSO MW, BM, Reserve DVR, NPC, PTI and some SM categories.

It also, for the first time, recognises important qualifications achieved by some Navy sailors, including navigation competencies (BM, NPC, CSO MW, HSO categories), AIC (CSO), FSMS (AT), FCO (ET) and STO (MT).

“Some categories had not been reviewed for decades,” CAPT Hill said, “so the GORPS process has been a great opportunity to take account of issues like contribution to capability, increasing sophistication of technology and work processes, increased governance and accountability — along with wage pressures from the wider national and global labour markets.”

The pay details of all individual sailors are being transferred to the new 10-grade structure. It will be a phased implementation over some seven months, but no one will lose out because all pay changes will be backdated to last September 4.

GORPS has also moved the warrant officer structure from eight grades to 10, and this will better facilitate logical progression from CPO to WO.

Trainee pay for officers and sailors has also been updated as part of GORPS. It now takes account of progression from initial entry training (Recruit School, ADFA or HMAS Creswell) to category and PQ courses, particularly for category courses longer than six months and 12 months duration. A new trainee allowance of $8,000 pa is also to be introduced. The new trainee pay rates take effect from payday January 8.

The GORPS determination will also include airmen aircrew after their case was approved at a hearing by the tribunal on November 18 and 19. The DFRT agreed to backdate these placements to September 4 to align with the rest of GORPS.

GORPS pay grades will also read across to Reserves.

The GORPS transition is quite separate from the ADF WRA pay rise of 2.8 per cent due in February 2009.