Tax saver ticket "discrimination"

Torq

Hi Guys,
simple scenario. My employer will only buy tax saver tickets for seleted transport providers, they claim it's too complex to add any others to their system. So some employees can buy discounted tickets, others can not and their position will cost me and some of my colleagues an extra €1500pa

I know it's not classed as discrimination under the Employment Equality Act 1998 but is it legal for them to offer this option to some but not others?
TIA
Torq.

P.S. I've notified my union (1st time I've ever contacted them in 20+ yrs of employment) but have had very little feed back from them to date.

Red Crow

Torq wrote: »

Hi Guys,
simple scenario. My employer will only buy tax saver tickets for seleted transport providers, they claim it's too complex to add any others to their system. So some employees can buy discounted tickets, others can not and their position will cost me and some of my colleagues an extra €1500pa

I know it's not classed as discrimination under the Employment Equality Act 1998 but is it legal for them to offer this option to some but not others?
TIA
Torq.

P.S. I've notified my union (1st time I've ever contacted them in 20+ yrs of employment) but have had very little feed back from them to date.

There is no obligation on the employer whatsoever. The incentive is the PRSI savings the Employer gets but they are not obliged to provide you an option to obtain a Tax Saver ticket. As with all these schemes eg. Bike-To-Work it's entirely voluntary from both parties.

I don't see where the complexity of the issue is. It's not difficult to administer. What's probably happened in your case is that they have a payroll system that is not very flexible. So whats probably going on is that a select few options were added to be a non-taxable element of your salary.

Torq

Thanks for the reply. I know they are under no obligation to partake in the scheme. My question is more concerned with the inequality, where some employees have the option of joining but others do not.

Atlantic Dawn

Torq wrote: »

Thanks for the reply. I know they are under no obligation to partake in the scheme. My question is more concerned with the inequality, where some employees have the option of joining but others do not.

Not too sure on the tax saver tickets but I do know that the bike to work scheme must be availble to all employees in an organisation for it to be legit. The issue particularly if you work in a small organisation is it will simply take up too much time to administor the tax saver tickets with multple organisations particularly if they are monthly tickets and not annual there will be lots of administration involved. If it was my organisation and relatively small, less than 100 people I would allow Irish Rail, Luas and Dublin Bus/Bus Eireann, that would be all I would allow.

Victor

Have them consider: http://www.travelhub.ie/

Torq

my bus company is not on travel hub so that's not an option at this stage. Also my employer is not willing to add them to the list either. Finally, my employer is a huge company with several thousand staff in Ireland alone.

Peregrinus

There's no discrimination against employees; all the employees are offered the same range of tax saver tickets; the range is more useful to some employees than to others, that's all.

If the range was more useful to men than to women, or vice versa, then you could possibly mount an indirect discrimination argument, but there's nothing in your OP to suggest that the selection of transport operators amounts to indirect discrimination on any of the prohibited grounds.

If anyone's being discriminated against here, it's the transport companies whose tax-saver tickets are not offered. But the transport companies are not employees, so this is not employment discrimination. And there's no general anti-discrimination legislation which is directed at discrimination in purchasing decisions; I am free to not buy your goods or services for any reason I like, however capricious or discriminatory.

jimmycrackcorm

Torq wrote: »

my bus company is not on travel hub so that's not an option at this stage. Also my employer is not willing to add them to the list either. Finally, my employer is a huge company with several thousand staff in Ireland alone.

Aren't you also being offered the taxsaver scheme, except you choose not to use the bus company associated with it?

Torq

Unfortunately i can see some very valid points in the above posts. And it looks more likely that I'm going to be €1500 out of pocket unless we sell up and move 80miles onto one of the supported routes. And that's not going to happen. Not great for employee morale especially as outsourcing of our jobs is also on the cards.

schemingbohemia

Who provides the bus journey that you want to use? Is this a new policy? What was the situation last year? Your employers argument is rubbish but not illegal, the payment to another operator is hardly rocket science, can you find out from payroll what the exact problem is and then contact the bus operator and see if they can comply (with the threat of losing customers)?

Torq

The service is provided by citylink and the problem is simply that HR have decided that they have a list of 7 transport providers and do not want to extend it.

Bus eireann and irish rail are on the list but their timetables are dreadfull, do not fit my working hours, are inconvenient ly located, slow (my current daily 5hr commute would increast to 6.5hrs if I used their services) and more expensive. My union are raising the issue this week but I doubt they'll or I will get much satisfaction from my employer. I think I'm on to an expensive looser here.

schemingbohemia

I didn't think Citylink provided annual passes that could be an issue.

Man a 5 hour commute is crazy, would it not be worth your sanity to rent a room nearer to work during the week?

Torq

citylink do annual commuter tickets, i have the form on my desk.

2 kids under 3 and a wife means staying away during the week is a no go. sleeping on the bus or listening to music makes the traveling bearable.

My union is speaking to my employer this week so watch this space...