Where can I find guidance on how many days a soldier should be allowed off versus required to work?

CPT Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 16 Jul 2019 00:26:47 -0400

I just started my first command as a TPU. I want to leverage orders and RMA/ADA/ATAs etc to ensure my soldiers feel like they have been compensated adequately. Additionally, I'd like to avoid working for free as a TPU. As a reservist I feel like it is very common for leaders to expect soldiers to give their time off with no compensation. This is an unrealistic expectation in my opinion and I want to be able to pay my soldiers as much as I am legally able in addition to making sure I put an appropriate monetary value on my commitments to my unit when I am away from the office. Are there any regulations or guidance that discuss remote work for soldiers? What about bringing a soldier in for 7 days of orders and only making them work 5. As an example, let's say I want to bring a soldier into work for a week but the soldier is out of RMA days, ATA days, etc. The only way I can bring them in would be on orders. Dual ATAs pay more than a single day of orders so financially, it is less lucrative for the soldier to participate and discourages them from wanting to come into the unit voluntarily (especially if their civilian job pays more). As a commander, can (and should) I bring a soldier in on orders for 7 days and give them two days off? Often times it seems that soldiers on ECT are expected to work for 14 days with maybe 1 or 2 days off the entire ECT. In my opinion, soldiers should be granted 2 days off per week unless absolutely necessary for operational reasons. Would it be reasonable to put a soldier on orders Monday through Sunday and give them 2 days off somewhere in that stretch? Effectively getting them paid for 7 days versus 5. The reserve pay system is weird because active duty folks get 2.5 days paid leave per month. Double ATAs sound nice but don't include BAH or BAS... so in my opinion it's almost even when doing those.

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 16 at 2019 7:15 AM

LTC Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 16 Jul 2019 07:15:41 -0400

You need to talk to your Staff Judge Advocate.

Response by SPC Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 16 at 2019 7:39 AM

SPC Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 16 Jul 2019 07:39:03 -0400

AR 600-8-10 states it is based on local command policy. I know my units policy is you can’t have more than 4 days off with out have a DA-31.

Response by CW3 Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 16 at 2019 8:51 AM

CW3 Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 16 Jul 2019 08:51:54 -0400

Sir, this is a local command policy. All orders have to be approved by BN and above. Each BN has a budgeted amount of days. I was a TPU commander at a MCT for a spell and I can say it was hard to get anything approved you have to have solid justification. As for allowing them days off that will be hard to approve and get anyone to buy off on. I have rarely seen any time off given other than a organizational day at the end of AT. I would say this is one of those as long as you are good with it and they are with-in driving distance then...

Response by SGM Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 16 at 2019 9:57 PM

SGM Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 16 Jul 2019 21:57:36 -0400

AR 135-91 and AR 600-8-6 will get you started on what you should know about paying TPUs.
Here is the bad news:
7 day orders with 2 days off: not likely, for several reasons.
Leave is an entitlement on active duty orders, not for orders 29 days or less. A local commander can authorize a pass, but if you plan on trying to get just 7 day orders that cover a weekend, somewhere between unit and approval level, those will get shortened to just MON-FRI, because reserve components simply are not funded to give paid time off for TPU/MDAYS.
For this same reason, most commands only authorize alternate home station AT orders in three sets of MON-FRI orders, because there is no expectation for a TPU/MDAY to be at the unit on a weekend when the AGRs are not there.
RMA/ATA comes with the same rules as a drill UTA: minimum 4 hours duty, in uniform at the unit, or place of duty, except RMAs and ATAs are limited to one per day, unlike the UTA (MUTA and some codes of ATAs) that we can pay two per day for drills, which each come with a minimum 4 hours duty (min 8 total), in uniform, at the unit or place of duty.
Paying someone an RMA for something they did at home comes with the risk of relief for cause for fraud, and that's a risk assumed at O6 level or above, (In our case that risk was assumed by the CG only for RMA compensation for completing SSD).
The dirty truth is, there is no regulatory way to pay leaders for participating in teleconference command and staff meetings at night, or working on awards, evals or briefing products at home on their own time in the evenings or on weekends. That's the price that comes with the leadership position, just like it does on active duty; we give up some of our free time.
There is a way to award TPU/MDAYs a retirement point for a command and staff call and other remote work events, it's not much, but it still adds up to more financial compensation in retirement than the zero compensation we got on active duty for every late night C&S or QTB re-write, or writing NCOERs and awards at home after the kids go to bed, or spending your whole weekend writing up a training concept that someone asked for Friday night for a Monday morning suspense.
Long story short, the only real way to make it "fair compensation" for the majority of the TPU/MDAYs is to plan realistic expectations for every drill, RMA and set of orders so that all scheduled requirements can be completed by 1700 every day.