What North Tyneside Council wants to do to help armed forces personnel

More will be done to help armed forces personnel get jobs if a shake-up in a council recruiting policy is given the go-ahead.

Currently North Tyneside Council guarantees ex-Armed Forces personnel an interview for a vacant posts if they met the requirements of the job description and person specification.

Now, plans have been drawn up to extend this to existing members of the armed forces who serve as reservists.

A report to the council's cabinet said that reservists are often disadvantaged when looking for work because employers think that civilian jobs will take second place to their military duties.

"Employers may believe the time needed to carry out the "reserve" commitment will impact on employment," it said.

"Employers may believe reservists will habitually ask to leave early for parade evenings or this will impact on their ability to attend work on Monday mornings after weekend deployments."

Some companies also think that reservists will need a lot of time off to carry out military training or deployments.

The report also pointed out that a lot of reservists used to be regular service people who are making the change to civilian life.

It also said that authority's special leave policy means that reservists can take up to two weeks to attend training camp and if someone is called up for active operational duties the Ministry of Defence will help the council recruit a temporary worker.

The document also said that reservists have same skills as their civilian counterparts.

It added: "Reservists have the same skill sets as their regular counterparts and potential employers are not aware that on average £10,000 is invested in each reservist on developing transitional skills which a Reservist can use in both military and civilian work life."

North Tyneside Council's cabinet will vote on the proposal to give reservists guaranteed job interviews at their next meeting on Tuesday.