RFA Officers & Ratings Query

[Finkenwerder]

Many websites give details of the RFA and many state that the RFA sea staff are Merchant Navy whereas others say they are civil servants. Even some MOD sites seem confused as to what the sea staff are and one states on the homepage that they are MN and later on the same site says they are civil servants.

I've been out of the industry for a while now but can anyone enlighten me as to whether they are MN or CS?

(In my day they were definitely MN)

[Orbitaman]

RFA Officers are most definitely Merchant Navy, with Merchant Navy CoC's. However, as they are employed by the government, they could be considered to be Civil Servants as well! They are also part of the civil service pension scheme - so take your choice, but from my understanding, they are basically both at the same time.

[al1934]

And threatening strike action now! Why should England tremble...

[170 Driver]

Originally Posted by Orbitaman

RFA Officers are most definitely Merchant Navy, with Merchant Navy CoC's. However, as they are employed by the government, they could be considered to be Civil Servants as well! They are also part of the civil service pension scheme - so take your choice, but from my understanding, they are basically both at the same time.

Certainly some of them are.

Originally Posted by al1934

And threatening strike action now! Why should England tremble...

Now there`s a quality book.

[Old Oilskin]

Ratings were (are) Merchant Navy. No question about that.

Deck ratings were issued with Royal Navy dark blue shirts and square neck jumper(s).

Still have mine.

[Finkenwerder]

My thanks to contributors. I am now certain that RFA sea staff are Merchant Navy. If they've moved from the Merchant Navy Pension to the Civil Service one then they've done themselves a favour as it's probably a much better scheme, even these days. When I left the MN and joined the RMAS (civil servants) it didn't take me long to transfer my MNOPF into the PCSPS and I gained nearly 3 years of reckonable service as a result!