Question

Dear HR professionals,

We do give sales staff a fixed transport allowance i.e. paid into their pay monthly. May I know if you
a) deduct this allowance if an employee goes on leave be it annual, MC or unpaid?

b) If staff visits customers, they are allowed to claim parking fees (reimbursement). What about parking charges incurred if they come to the office? Do u reimburse?

Thank you.

Jess

Reply 1

If the company gave monthly transport allowance to employees, if they happen to be on leave, MC, etc, we would not deduct this transport allowance. Unless it is a variable transport allowance which means it will be based on working days calculations for the month.

When we give monthly transport allowance, it is an indication which is fixed on a monthly basis and also subject to CPF contributions. When staff claim parking fees as reimbursement, is this on top of the transport allowance? Technically, if the company pay transport allowance, usually they won't reimburse parking fees. Unless there isn't a transport allowance, staff can claim parking fees as reimbursement. Staff who drives, they can claim mileage based on what has been set.

Another thing, we do not allow parking fees to be claimed when travelling to the office. The office is their work location. They would either have purchased season parking in that building or somewhere else. We would not allow reimbursement of parking fees in the office when they come.

JL

Reply 2

a)  It depends on your management viewpoint, the company’s stand and consideration. There’s no hard and fast rule for this as it varies from company to company.

For your reference, we do deduct the transport allowance for prolonged absence from work due to unpaid leave for personal reason (Travel, handling personal affairs etc.).

Do consider these in deciding on the practice/policy - 1) The frequency of such instances happening, 2) workforce size and 3) employee’s sentiment.

b)  Parking claims will very much depend on the nature of work. Is having a vehicle or driving a requirement for the position or to perform the task? Is there a transport allowance given for this position/person? What is included in the transport allowance if any? If no, do benchmark your allowance given to your employee against a market benchmark to determine if required to reimburse.

Office - Not usual as you will need to report to office regardless if you are driving or not. Office employees report to work without claiming transport fee so why should another employee be given parking reimbursement for reporting to the office.

Elvin

Reply 3

The fixed allowance already indicated in the employment letter, it is part of their entitlement, hence not supposed to pro-rate when they are on paid leave. We are an IT company, we will only pro-rate their fixed allowances when the employee is taking unpaid leave. Majority of our employees who required to travel to customer site daily, their parking at the office will be reimbursed. Their duration of staying in the office will be very minimum.

Ai Ting