Removed from the unit roll before the settlement and documents were issued

What is happening

Discharge and removal from the unit roll are two different steps. First the discharge order, then the settlement and the issue of entitlements, and only after that removal from the roll. In practice the order is often reversed: a man is removed on a single day and told the money will come when funding arrives.

The consequences are real. From the date of removal your service pay stops, you lose the status of a serviceman and the guarantees attached to it, and what the unit owes you turns into a dispute you have to prove. Frequently the military ID, the travel order, extracts from orders and the certificates needed by the military commissariat and the pension authority are not issued either.

The opposite mistake also happens: a man is kept on the roll for months after discharge without being paid in full. That is equally open to challenge, and often in the same case.

What the law says

• Article 34(16) of the Regulation on the Procedure for Military Service (Presidential Decree No. 1237 of 16 September 1999) does not allow removal from the unit roll until pay, clothing and ration entitlements have been issued in full.
• Service pay is due up to and including the day of removal from the roll; any shortfall for that period is recoverable.
• Where entitlements were not issued in full, the court may move the date of removal to a later day, with pay for that additional period.
• On removal you must be given your documents: the military ID with the entries made, extracts from orders, certificates of service and pay, and the referral to the military commissariat.
• The removal order is challenged in the garrison military court within three months of the day you learned of it.
• Failure to pay the settlement does not extinguish your right to it: the claim for the sums due remains.

What we do

• We reconcile the dates: the discharge order, the removal order, the payments actually made and the entitlements actually issued.
• We request pay certificates and settlement records from the unit and the financial authority so the shortfall can be calculated.
• We challenge the removal order and ask for the date to be moved to the day entitlements were in fact issued.
• We claim the unpaid service pay, compensation for clothing entitlements and for leave not taken.
• We press for the military ID, extracts from orders and the certificates needed by the commissariat and the pension authority.
• We conduct the case in the military court and follow enforcement by the financial authority.

What we need from you

• Extracts from the discharge order and from the order removing you from the unit roll.
• Pay slips and a certificate of your service pay for the final months.
• Details of what was and was not issued: clothing, rations, compensation.
• Details of leave not taken and of periods in hospital or on deployment.
• Your military ID and any documents handed to you on discharge.
• Your written submissions to the unit and the financial authority, with their replies.