Honda Motor Co. plans to abolish fixed commuting allowances and instead switch to the reimbursement of actual expenses from October. The move is in response to the increase of teleworkers within the company. A new 250 yen telecommuting allowance, intended to reduce the employees' burden of communication and utility costs and encourage them to work from home, is also to be introduced.
Efforts to encourage new ways of working not constrained by location or time are spreading.
Honda has been providing its employees with a fixed monthly commuting allowance to reimburse public transportation fees or the cost of gasoline for personal vehicles.
Under the new system, the company will reimburse employees according to the precise cost of fares or mileage for the number of days each month employees commute to work. The company and the labor union have reached a general agreement that the clerical employees of Honda's head office, laboratories and plants are expected to be eligible for the allowance.
Several IT firms have already abolished fixed commuting allowances and introduced telework allowances as well.
SoftBank Corp. from September will reimburse actual transportation costs and provide a telecommuting allowance of 4,000 yen per month, while NTT Group will add a remote work allowance of 200 yen per day beginning in October. Fujitsu Ltd., which generally requires its employees to work from home, with the exception of those working at manufacturing bases, will provide 5,000 yen per month.
Calbee, Inc., in general, requires about 800 of its employees -- about 20% of domestic employees -- to telework and plans to reduce the number of employees who live apart from their families.
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