Prospect UKPN reps going the extra mile for members on car scheme
UK Power Networks offers a salary sacrifice green car scheme to its employees and this also includes a cash alternative to drivers who provide their own car, but the scheme isn’t perfect, and so, some Prospect reps set out to work with the company to make things better.
For example, some employees have been taking electric vehicles on the salary sacrifice scheme and have been able to enjoy both the tax benefits and the CO2 reductions that this provides.
However, this benefit was not suitable for all employees due to operational role issues and suitability.
Working with the employer, a Prospect-led Car Working Group successfully lobbied for plug-in hybrid cars to be added to the salary sacrifice benefits from the green car scheme.
A further benefit of the inclusion of hybrids was even lower CO2 emissions, as the lease company has measures in place so that even hybrids are carbon neutral due to offsetting.
The Car Working Group also managed to negotiate certain adjustments to the terms and conditions from the leasing company to allow the vehicles to be on a lease that’s suitable for almost all employees, allowing them to benefit from salary sacrifice.
The webinar
Perhaps just as important as the actual success of the negotiations themselves, is that senior Prospect UKPN reps, in collaboration with UKPN transport, followed it up by running a webinar to pick through the minefield of lease agreements and salary sacrifice schemes.
The webinar, which gave members a clearer picture of what the agreements mean and lets them make an informed choice, was extremely popular with perhaps as much as 10% of the branch’s approximate 1,400-strong membership in attendance.
As well as answering questions, feedback was also collected that could be fed back to the employer.
Prospect UKPN rep Ben Coomber said: “The improvements to the green car scheme now gives Prospect members a lot more flexibility in what vehicles they can choose.
“The webinar was also a big success. The feedback has been that it was well received, and people found it very helpful. We are going to follow it up with webinars on other topics in the future.”
