Increase in travel allowance means nothing for millions of workers: trade union

The Cabinet's plan to increase the maximum travel allowance, also known as the kilometer allowance, will mean nothing for millions of employees, trade union FNV said to AD. According to the union, many employees don't receive a travel allowance at all.

The government plans to increase the maximum tax-free travel allowance from the current 19 cents per kilometer to 21 cents by 2023 and 23 cents by 2024. But the majority of employees won't benefit from this, according to the union.

"Of the 6 million people covered by a collective labor agreement, 2.6 million have a travel allowance in the agreement," FNV vice president Zakaria Boufangacha said to the newspaper. And only a third of those employees get the maximum allowance of 19 cents per kilometer.

Many people, including people covered by the large collective agreements, get nothing or much less. People working at hospitals, in the food sector, and technical wholesalers, for example, get 8 cents per liter or less. If they get anything at all. The collective agreement for childcare includes a travel allowance of up to 11 cents per kilometer.