Bonuses If You Leave A Company

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fleetingmind
fleetingmind Posts: 481 Forumite
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in Employment, jobseeking & training
I’ve been at my current company for over 10 years and bonuses have always been done whereby if the company had done well then you got a % of a pot of allocated money. When staff have left before the payment of the bonus they were told they weren’t entitled to the bonus as they were leaving.

There is no mention of bonuses in our contracts. This year they will be done based on set KPI’s. I might have an email where it is set out what my KPI’s are and what I can look to recive if I meet my targets.

If I meet my KPI’s but leave before they are paid am I entitled to still receive it?

Thank you

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  • Comms69
    Comms69 Posts: 14,229 Forumite
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    Bonuses are discretionary typically, so if you leave there is no obligation to pay it.
  • ssparks2003
    ssparks2003 Posts: 809 Forumite
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    If they are not in your contract then they are at the discretion of the management so no you are not entitled
  • ReadingTim
    ReadingTim Posts: 3,970 Forumite
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    Unlikely, but it depends on the terms of the bonus scheme and the reason you're leaving.

    In both of those circumstances, the only person who can answer for sure is your employer, not "the internet" - suggest you ask them.
  • TELLIT01
    TELLIT01 Posts: 16,486 Forumite
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    If there is nothing in the contract then payment or otherwise is discretionary. Even when bonuses are mentioned in the contract, it's usual for the bonus only to be paid to staff who are still in employment on a specific date.
    For example, when I worked for DWP bonuses were only paid to staff still in employment on 1st July. There were a number of rounds of redundancy when I was there. In most instances employment ceased on 30th June therefore no bonus.
  • About-time
    About-time Posts: 62 Forumite
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    Not quite the same admittedly, but a lot of years ago I worked for a bank, and there was a commission element to my role, which was paid as a quarterly bonus. Despite having earned hundreds in commission, I was paid nothing at the end of the quarter I left in, and nothing after either (bearing in mind we are talking about mortgage applications, which could take anything from just over a month to cracking on for a year to complete and earn commission).


    If you think about it, there would have been no point I could have left that job without being owed any commission.


    I would presume in general that if you leave at any point before it's paid, you would not get a bonus.
  • agrinnall
    agrinnall Posts: 23,344 Forumite
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    About-time wrote: »
    Not quite the same admittedly, but a lot of years ago I worked for a bank, and there was a commission element to my role, which was paid as a quarterly bonus. Despite having earned hundreds in commission, I was paid nothing at the end of the quarter I left in, and nothing after either (bearing in mind we are talking about mortgage applications, which could take anything from just over a month to cracking on for a year to complete and earn commission).

    I suspect that this is entirely different rather than "not quite the same". Surely your commision payments were contractual, and failure of the bank to pay them was something you could (and perhaps should) have contested, in court if necessary. It's very unlikely that the OP would have anything to contest in their situation.
  • About-time
    About-time Posts: 62 Forumite
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    agrinnall wrote: »
    I suspect that this is entirely different rather than "not quite the same". Surely your commision payments were contractual, and failure of the bank to pay them was something you could (and perhaps should) have contested, in court if necessary. It's very unlikely that the OP would have anything to contest in their situation.


    Fair point. Although I'm not sure to be honest, as the commission element was brought in down the line, after I'd already been there for a while. Certainly at the time, nobody really wanted to take my calls querying non-payment! But I was young and probably didn't pursue it as vigorously as I should have done
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