garden leave from handing in mynotice

salduck

Hi all,
A quick piece of advice needed please- Scotland based if that makes a difference!
Handed in my notice on the 23rd- accepted on 4 weeks notice final day 22nd September.
Work in sales so totally expected to be put on garden leave as i now have been.
My question is i get paid on average around £500 in commissioon each month, they are totaly fine with paying me commission for the past month.
Nothing has been metioned about the month whilst i will be sat on me bum at home but reading through some bits online it looks like i might be entitled to commission for the forethcoming month????

in my contract it says commission is awarded on a discretionary basis but i work in sales and its a big part of my wage.

Could anyone advice me 1- am i due this commission?
2- should i get paid at the end of september or end august for all due to me?
3- How do i go about telling them if i am due cuommission cos i know they wont want to pay me it!

Thanks in advance
Sally

SarEl

I am not being funny here, but you do understand the meaning of the word "discretionary" ? So you don't go "telling" then anything because when the choice is up to them, then you aren't in a strong position to tell them anything. Commission is generally based on sales - if you are on gardening leave then you aren't making or contributing to sales, so there really isn't an argument that you are due anything. It really is therefore up to the employer to determine whether or not they wish to use their discretion to pay this. So you should by all means ask them whether you will receive commission, and at the same time you can ask them when your final payment(s) will be received. How they run payroll is down to their company practices and not the law.

highguyuk

If I was a sales person on gardening leave I wouldn't be expecting commission for a month where I didn't do any selling.

Uncertain

highguyuk wrote: »

If I was a sales person on gardening leave I wouldn't be expecting commission for a month where I didn't do any selling.

Well you might EXPECT but that is not the same thing as having a right...

Too often people accept "discretionary" clauses in employment contracts assuming the discretion will never be used against them. Sic pay is another good example.

Whilst there may be some limited legal protection if the firm fail to act equitably it is far from certain or easy.

salduck

hi folks,
i totally do not "expect" and do understand discretionary!
the only reason i was asking was that following some reading online it seems there is a case for being paid comission when it "normally" forms part of your wage when you are working. As garden leave you are "meant" to be paid all usual benefits as when "in work".

Thanks for the responses

DVardysShadow

salduck wrote: »

hi folks,
i totally do not "expect" and do understand discretionary!
the only reason i was asking was that following some reading online it seems there is a case for being paid comission when it "normally" forms part of your wage when you are working. As garden leave you are "meant" to be paid all usual benefits as when "in work".

Thanks for the responses

I can see your reasoning - your employer has chosen not to let you work, thus denying you commission. And to my way of looking at it, it is not right.

Now I am afraid that when SarEl sees an issue like yours, she looks at it SOLELY from a legal and court of law basis and if she does not think you will win she will post what i would frankly call a shirty dismissal.

She most probably is right in legal terms, but the net effect as I see it is that she kills the conversation stone dead on other constructive ways of dealing with the problem. This is personal and directed at her and I make no bones about it, I wish she would but tout of these kind of situations or do something which would leave open other avenues or just leave it for 48 hours to see what else there is which can help people. Obviously, her legal experience puts her way ahead of the crowd here on that issue, but I think her overall experience of the workplace does not match the accumulated experience of all of the potential posters here. So I would not want to see this obvious legal star outshine non legal [I don't mean illegal!!!] ways of looking at and dealing with the problem.

Having had that little rant, I will go on to say that in your position, I would possibly be looking at negotiating an early start with the new employer and an early finish with the old one.

SarEl

DVardysShadow wrote: »

I can see your reasoning - your employer has chosen not to let you work, thus denying you commission. And to my way of looking at it, it is not right.

Now I am afraid that when SarEl sees an issue like yours, she looks at it SOLELY from a legal and court of law basis and if she does not think you will win she will post what i would frankly call a shirty dismissal.

She most probably is right in legal terms, but the net effect as I see it is that she kills the conversation stone dead on other constructive ways of dealing with the problem. This is personal and directed at her and I make no bones about it, I wish she would but tout of these kind of situations or do something which would leave open other avenues or just leave it for 48 hours to see what else there is which can help people. Obviously, her legal experience puts her way ahead of the crowd here on that issue, but I think her overall experience of the workplace does not match the accumulated experience of all of the potential posters here. So I would not want to see this obvious legal star outshine non legal [I don't mean illegal!!!] ways of looking at and dealing with the problem.

Having had that little rant, I will go on to say that in your position, I would possibly be looking at negotiating an early start with the new employer and an early finish with the old one.

So - you've got it wrong on the law a few times and didn't like being put right? Is that your beef? Well I can see how you would take that personally. I made my comments base not on any legal grounds - if they had been on legal grounds I would have said so as I always do. Discretionary means what it says on the packet - a choice. And the employers choice. So I suggested that the poster did not go "telling" his employers what he wanted - his word not mine, but asked them what they intended to do, and at the same time he asked when his final salary would be paid, something which neither I nor you could tell him since his employers are the people who have this information.

I may have less experience of the workplace than you have - I have only 30 odd years of it - but in my experience "telling" your employer things rather than asking is the surest way of getting a negative answer.

I can't comment on the other people who posted - I have no idea whether the collective experience of your "other posters" who haven't posted yet outweighs mine or yours.

But then, I notice that your experience doesn't actually stretch to telling the OP the secret to persuading an employer to make a discretionary payment and make sure you get it.

I have no intention of "butting out" as you put it. This is a public forum and I am as entitled to my views as anyone else. If you don't like them - tough. If you don't like that fact then I suggest that you go somewhere else where the other posters are more to your liking.

Jinx

I personally would expect the commission as under normal circumstances you would work the notice and get paid all benefits. It was entirely their choice to prevent that.

Could you start with the new employer early? That way you win on both sides, salary from old plus salary + commission from new bosses.

Uncertain

Jinx wrote: »

Could you start with the new employer early? That way you win on both sides, salary from old plus salary + commission from new bosses.

You can't normally do that on garden leave (unless the old employer agrees) as, in theory, you could be called in to work at a moment's notice.

I do sympathise with the OP and it may well be that a polite request will get the money or at least a compromise.

Alternatively, (and SarEl will hate this) it may be worth the OP launching a claim after she leaves, on even flimsy ground, as the firm may well feel it is not worth the cost and hassle of defending. Obviously this says goodbye to any reference so it is not an easy call.

Uncertain

SarEl wrote: »

So I suggested that the poster did not go "telling" his employers what he wanted - his word not mine, but asked them what they intended to do, and at the same time he asked when his final salary would be paid, something which neither I nor you could tell him since his employers are the people who have this information.

I imagine Sally is a she !!

Easy to overlook the basics from a lofty perch on a high horse.;)

DVardysShadow

SarEl wrote: »

So - you've got it wrong on the law a few times and didn't like being put right? Is that your beef? Well I can see how you would take that personally. I made my comments base not on any legal grounds - if they had been on legal grounds I would have said so as I always do. Discretionary means what it says on the packet - a choice. And the employers choice. So I suggested that the poster did not go "telling" his employers what he wanted - his word not mine, but asked them what they intended to do, and at the same time he asked when his final salary would be paid, something which neither I nor you could tell him since his employers are the people who have this information.

I may have less experience of the workplace than you have - I have only 30 odd years of it - but in my experience "telling" your employer things rather than asking is the surest way of getting a negative answer.

I can't comment on the other people who posted - I have no idea whether the collective experience of your "other posters" who haven't posted yet outweighs mine or yours.

But then, I notice that your experience doesn't actually stretch to telling the OP the secret to persuading an employer to make a discretionary payment and make sure you get it.

I have no intention of "butting out" as you put it. This is a public forum and I am as entitled to my views as anyone else. If you don't like them - tough. If you don't like that fact then I suggest that you go somewhere else where the other posters are more to your liking.

You really do put a wet blanket on discussion. I don't bother too much whether I have got it wrong according to you. My beef is that you come at all of these issues from the legal perspective and you kill the discussion stone dead with the legal answer. Yes you may have 30 years. I think your experience will be narrow - and although you may well have heard far more of certain types of issue than I ever will, the substantial majority of that will be stuff which has gone bad enough to have to go to court. That is a minority of the workplace experience. Your answers are like a pathologist explaining the joy of life. His answer carries death, because that is the part of life he sees.

Note that I am not saying 'go away' - but I am saying leave more space for others. As for you, you are telling me to go away. But what we need is more from the people who can deal with stuff before it goes bad.