Our new CEO decided we weren’t in the car business and so decided worldwide to dispose of company cars – fair enough, said most of the employees even though they knew it would pose some difficulties.

The so-called “company car” benefit could be taken in two forms as is common these days, a car or a monthly allowance for you to go and buy your own car. About 2/3 of those eligible still take the car and about 1/3 take the money and buy their own.

However, when the buy-out of the benefit came about some employees were upset – those who opted out and took the money allowance a few years ago. All of those eligible are being bought-out at the same monthly allowance but the company decided to give a gesture of ‘goodwill’ since there would be a number of people who’d have to go out and find the money to buy a car. The gesture, however, is what’s caused the grievance – those who currently have company cars will get 5 times the amount of ‘goodwill £’ than those who opted out during the last 3 years. When they opted out there was no ‘goodwill’ gesture to help them.

Is the company OK to do this?

Jillian Greaves