South Lanarkshire Council is introducing its 16,250 employees to a new travel benefit that encourages carbon footprint reduction: Greentravel2workÔ. This is an initiative from leading employee benefits provider P&MM and will be added to the Council’s wider employee travel plan and sustainable development strategy.
Greentravel2work has been developed in support of the Government’s Green Travel Plan. It is designed to encourage employees to use local bus services to and from the workplace instead of less sustainable forms of transport. Employees at the council can now save up to 41 per cent on the cost of an annual bus pass when they sign up to the scheme and their pass can be used in their leisure time too.
Kay McVeigh, Head of Personnel Services at South Lanarkshire Council, commented: “Greentravel2work adds to our current employee travel plan designed to offer Council employees the options to adopt more sustainable forms of work travel. We take our green agenda very seriously and believe that the best way to promote sustainability across our region is through leading by example.”
Employees at South Lanarkshire Council will be given the option to choose an annual bus pass and pay for it monthly via a deduction from their pay – a salary sacrifice. The employee saves because the salary sacrifice payment is exempt from income tax and National Insurance (NI) contributions up to 41 per cent. The Council saves money too as they don’t have to pay NI on the salary sacrificed up to 12.8 per cent.
P&MM will manage the whole scheme having negotiated with the local bus companies and assisted in promoting the scheme to employees at the Council.
Kay McVeigh continued: “Greentravel2work works very well for us as it can be run cost-neutrally and also offers our employees some important money-savings, which, in this current climate especially, are always well sought after.”
Richard Davies, Head of Employee Benefits at P&MM, added: “P&MM has negotiated with bus companies all over the country, making Greentravel2work accessible to organisations throughout the UK that want to demonstrate corporate social responsibility commitment as well as offer their employees an appealing, money-saving benefit. South Lanarkshire Council becomes the first local authority in Scotland to introduce a Greentravel2work scheme for its employees and we anticipate that more will follow, as our success-rate throughout the rest of the UK demonstrates the real value of this as a voluntary benefits offering.”
