The amount and the same requirements of the bonus will be determined in the collective bargaining agreement. Thus, the collective bargaining agreement will not only determine the amount, but may also specify the monthly payment periods, etc.
Many companies and professionals pay their workers a transportation bonus, sometimes regulated by Collective Bargaining Agreement, which is an economic amount aimed at defraying the cost that the worker assumes for commuting to work.
As you already know, the transportation bonus is money that the worker receives from the company to compensate the expenses generated by the commuting to work. It is usually recognized in the Collective Bargaining Agreement, with different names, such as distance bonus, extra salary bonus, transportation assistance bonus, etc., but if it compensates the expenses involved in going from home to work and back, it will be a transportation bonus. The amount, whether it is fixed or not, monthly, or daily, will depend on what is indicated in the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
If you are entitled to a transportation bonus, it must be indicated in the payroll, clearly specified as a transportation bonus.
Non-wage nature
The transportation bonus is not a salary since its purpose is to compensate the employee for the cost of travel between the work center and his or her home. Therefore, it should not be computed as salary for the purpose of calculating compensation. This is unless your employees do not actually incur any commuting expenses. In that case, they will argue that the bonus is not compensatory in nature and should be included in the compensation.
Likewise, even though this concept is extra-salary, it is fully paid into the Social Security system.
Check the Collective Bargaining Agreement
The amount and the same requirements of the bonus will be determined in the collective bargaining agreement. Thus, the collective bargaining agreement will not only determine the amount, but may also specify the monthly payments, etc.
It may happen that the collective bargaining agreement does not specify anything regarding the distance from the worker’s home to the work center: Does the transportation bonus always have to be paid whether the workers have to take transportation?
Or if the worker lives 200 meters away from the workplace, could the employer decide not to pay her this bonus because she does not have to use any transportation to get to work?
It may happen that the specific collective bargaining agreement does not distinguish nor is it considered as a requirement for the accrual and payment of the bonus that the worker lives at a certain distance, but maintains it as a right of all workers, of any of the professional groups, whether they are hired full or part-time. Therefore, the transportation bonus must always be paid, regardless of whether the worker spends money on transportation from his home to the work center.
Another different question that could arise, for example, in a dismissal trial, is whether the transportation bonus paid to a worker in a specific case has a real extra-salary nature (it compensates a real expense – 26.2 ET) or whether it hides a wage concept (26.1 ET) to be included in the amount of the base salary for calculating a hypothetical compensation (a claim that, obviously, the dismissed employee in question would maintain).
In this scenario, questions such as whether the worker lived next to the work center, whether he/she was also paid in the extraordinary payments or even during vacations could be elucidated.
But the right and the requirements for payment, as detailed above, are determined, and detailed in the collective agreement, without the employer being able to decide or limit the requirements other than those established in the agreement itself.
Is the transportation bonus reduced in part-time contracts?
If the transportation bonus is considered a salary bonus, the provisions of the applicable collective bargaining agreement must be followed.
On the other hand, if it is considered as a non-wage bonus, it will depend on whether the worker must travel to the work center or not.
What about vacation periods?
The transportation bonus compensates the expenses incurred in going to work, so that during vacations, since the employee does not have to go to work, he/she does not receive the transportation bonus. This is normally received only 11 months a year, but some Agreements may allow this bonus to be prorated over the 12 annual pay slips, i.e., the bonus is received 11 times, but the total amount is divided over the 12 pay slips.
Does it have to be included in the extra pay?
No. The extra payments are received together with the June (or July) and December paychecks, and the transportation bonus will be received in those months in the normal paychecks.
Normally the Agreements indicate which concepts are included in the extra payments, and the transportation bonus is not usually included, since it compensates expenses that are already compensated in the monthly paychecks.
For more information, please contact Labor consulting.
