Unlike the private sector or other civil servants, teachers in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation will not benefit in the near future from an increase in their mileage allowances for cycling, Education Minister Caroline Désir (PS) hinted on Tuesday.
The social partners recently agreed to raise the kilometre allowance for private sector workers to 27 cents for cycling to and from work from next May.
Civil servants in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation enjoy an allowance of 25 cents for their cycle commutes, but FWB teachers only get 15 cents per kilometre. Moreover, they must use their bikes at least 10 days a month to benefit.
Questioned on Tuesday in a parliamentary committee session by parliamentarian Jean-Philippe Florent (Ecolo) about a harmonisation of the bicycle allowance for teachers, Minister Désir said she supported the measure, but could not implement it given the FWB’s very tight budget.
The minister said she had proposed during the preparation of the FWB’s 2023 budget to review the bicycle allowance for teachers and abolish the ten-day rule, but the proposal “was not followed up” in government, she said.
She promised to put the idea back on the government’s table during the next conclave.
