Employee Transportation Expenses Reimbursement in Belgrade February 13, 2025 On December 30, 2024, a decision was published in the Official Gazette of the City of Belgrade, according to which the service of public scheduled transportation in the territory of the city of Belgrade is free starting from January 1, 2025, and the Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs published opinion no. 340029 2025 13400 001 001 011 024 from January 31, 2025 gave an opinion regarding the reimbursement of transportation costs to employees. In the opinion, the ministry refers to the Labor Law (Article 118, paragraph 1, item 1), which stipulates that the employee has the right to reimbursement of expenses for coming and going from work, by the Labor Law and the employment contract, in the amount of the price of a public transport ticket, if the employer has not provided his transport. “Therefore, the employer must compensate the employee for the costs of getting to and from work, up to the price of a public transport ticket, or to organize the employees’ transportation that will enable them to get to and from work.” Without going into how the employee will come and go from work, the law defines the amount of transportation costs that the employer must reimburse, which is determined according to the price of the ticket in public transport. Namely, the law starts from the assumption that the cost of coming and going from work always exists (except when the employer organizes its transportation). Therefore the employee should have the right to be reimbursed for this cost,” the Ministry’s opinion states. “The legal criterion for determining the amount of compensation to which the employee is entitled, in the case of free public transportation, would negate the right itself, although when determining this norm, it was assumed that the cost always exists, except in the situation when the employer provides its transportation.” Therefore, employees did not automatically lose their right to compensation for transportation costs but the question of the method and amount of payment of this compensation needs to be resolved” is the conclusion of Ministry. The Ministry thinks that the general act and employment contract can regulate the standard for compensating the costs of arrival and departure from work, guided by the amount of the last compensation paid on this basis before the new situation related to free transportation in the City of Belgrade. We emphasize that the opinions of the state administration authorities, or in this case the opinion of the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs, are not binding, and it can be expected that the relevant authorities take an official position and give precise guidelines and explanations for the procedure regarding reimbursement of transportation costs.
