The days when joining the Territorial Army meant no more than a few weekends in a drill hall followed by a fortnight running up and down hills and practising shooting on a firing range are over. More than 13,000 Territorial Army volunteers have served in the front line in Iraq and Afghanistan in the past four years. They may be doctors, nurses, plumbers or postmen, but when required they face exactly the same dangers as our regular service personnel: six TA members have died and 16 have been wounded in action since 2001. They can hardly be dismissed as "weekend warriors" or said to be playing at soldiers.
The days when joining the Territorial Army meant no more than a few weekends in a drill hall followed by a fortnight running up and down hills and practising shooting on a firing range are over. More than 13,000 Territorial Army volunteers have served in the front line in Iraq and Afghanistan in the past four years. They may be doctors, nurses, plumbers or postmen, but when required they face exactly the same dangers as our regular service personnel: six TA members have died and 16 have been wounded in action since 2001. They can hardly be dismissed as "weekend warriors" or said to be playing at soldiers.
Service personnel who enlist on a full-time basis are required to complete their agreed period of service, and to be willing to be deployed anywhere in the world as and when necessary. By comparison, civilians who sign up as part-time volunteers can base their home life wherever they wish and follow any career of their choosing. TA soldiers, whether called up for active service or on home duty and exercises, are entitled to the same rate of pay as their regular colleagues of the same rank. Both categories have the amount reduced by 8% - but only the regular soldiers are entitled to the pension which that funds.
The argument that TA soldiers have pensions from their civilian employment fails to take into account that a significant number play a key part in the part-time force for perhaps 20 years. That the cost of paying pensions to 36,000 veterans is estimated to cost up to £122m must be a significant factor in why it is opposed. That does not mean there cannot be a formula for fairer treatment of those with long service or who have been on active service for a specified time.
As a society, we set enormous store by equality. Over the past 30 years we have outlawed discrimination on grounds of gender, race and disability, and we are considerably more civilised as a result. It has taken the course of a generation to work thorough to a new understanding of how entrenched discrimination has been, and in some areas continues to be. Despite recruitment of women and people from ethnic minorities to a far greater range of roles than ever before, it seems our armed forces remain at heart discriminatory.
The MoD is not alone among employers in arguing that their lesser treatment of part-time workers results from the idea that their working pattern makes them of lesser value. Such arguments have been found specious from the factory floor to the merchant banks. Once again, they are to be argued in front of an employment tribunal. There, no doubt, we will hear the MoD plead that it operates in special circumstances to which the legislation should not apply. There can be no circumstances more specialised than war, but designating TA volunteers as "casual" employees will not do. As professional soldiers know all too well, there is nothing casual about putting one's life on the line.
