The Armed Forces Covenant
An Enduring Covenant Between The People of the United Kingdom His Majesty’s Government – and – All those who serve or have served in the Armed Forces of the Crown And their Families
The first duty of Government is the defence of the realm. Our Armed Forces fulfil that responsibility on behalf of the Government, sacrificing some civilian freedoms, facing danger and, sometimes, suffering serious injury or death as a result of their duty. Families also play a vital role in supporting the operational effectiveness of our Armed Forces. In return, the whole nation has a moral obligation to the members of the Naval Service, the Army and the Royal Air Force, together with their families. They deserve our respect and support, and fair treatment.
Those who serve in the Armed Forces, whether Regular or Reserve, those who have served in the past, and their families, should face no disadvantage compared to other citizens in the provision of public and commercial services. Special consideration is appropriate in some cases, especially for those who have given most such as the injured and the bereaved.
This obligation involves the whole of society: it includes voluntary and charitable bodies, private organisations, and the actions of individuals in supporting the Armed Forces. Recognising those who have performed military duty unites the country and demonstrates the value of their contribution. This has no greater expression than in upholding the Armed Forces Covenant.
Silver Award
We are honoured to have been awarded the Armed Forces Covenant Silver Award To achieve this required us to:
- Proactively demonstrate that service personnel/armed forces community are not unfairly disadvantaged as part of their recruiting and selection processes.
- Employ at least one individual from the AFC category that the nomination emphasises. For example, an employer nominated for support to the Reserves must employ at least one Reservist. In exceptional circumstances where there is outstanding generic support for the Armed Forces community and/or the size or business model of the organisation makes the employment of such an individual impossible, an organisation can be considered for the award where they do not employ someone from the AFC category.
- Actively ensure that our workforce is aware of their positive policies towards defence people issues. For example, an employer nominated for support to the Reserves must have an internally publicised and positive HR policy on Reserves.
- Within the context of Reserves demonstrate support to mobilisations or have a framework in place. We demonstrate support to training by providing at least 5 days’ additional unpaid/paid leave (wherever possible not to Reservist employees’ financial disadvantage).
- Not be the subject of any negative PR or media activity.
Section 1: Principles of The Armed Forces Covenant
We, Gama Aviation, will endeavour in our business dealings to uphold the key principles of the Armed Forces Covenant, which are:
- No member of the Armed Forces Community should face a disadvantage in the provision of public and commercial services compared to any other citizen.
- In some circumstances, special treatment may be appropriate, especially for the injured or bereaved.
Section 2: Demonstrating our Commitment
We recognise the value serving personnel, reservists, veterans and military families bring to our business and to our country. We will seek to uphold the principles of the Armed Forces Covenant, by:
- Promoting the Armed Forces: promoting the fact that we are an Armed Forces-friendly organisation, to our staff, customers, suppliers, contractors and wider public.
- Veterans: supporting the employment of veterans, recognising military skills and qualifications in our recruitment and selection process; working with the Career Transition Partnership (CTP) to support the employment of Service leavers;
- Reserves: supporting our employees who are members of the Reserve Forces; granting additional paid/unpaid leave for annual Reserve Forces training; supporting any mobilisations amid deployment; actively encouraging members of staff to become Reservists;
- Cadet Organisations: supporting our employees who are volunteer leaders in military cadet organisations, granting additional leave to attend annual training camps and courses; actively encouraging members of staff to become volunteer leaders in cadet organisations; supporting local military cadet units; recognising the benefits of employing cadets/ex-cadets within the workforce.
- National Events: supporting Armed Forces Day, Reserves Day, the Poppy Appeal Day and Remembrance activities;
- Armed Forces Charities: supporting Armed Forces charities with fundraising and supporting staff who volunteer to assist;
- We will publicise these commitments through our literature and/or on our website and invite feedback from the Service community and our customers on our efforts to assist the Armed Forces Community.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
