Bonus payment withdrawn when being made redundant

Sambucus_Nigra

WoB wrote: »

Agree. Do you know if a company can refuse that you work your notice (if it is not in your contract)?

Even if they indicated that you were going to get a bonus, think of it from their point of view - why would they pay out money that they didn't have to? This is why it has been orchestrated for redundancies to occur and for the last date to be the one before the cut off date. Even if someone was to argue about the notice period - they haven't announced anything to anyone so the discretionary bit kicks in and nobody can argue that they have been promised a bonus so again, they don't have to pay it.

WoB

Sambucus_Nigra wrote: »

Even if they indicated that you were going to get a bonus, think of it from their point of view - why would they pay out money that they didn't have to? This is why it has been orchestrated for redundancies to occur and for the last date to be the one before the cut off date. Even if someone was to argue about the notice period - they haven't announced anything to anyone so the discretionary bit kicks in and nobody can argue that they have been promised a bonus so again, they don't have to pay it.

Agree with most of that - I just think morally it's wrong. Anyway, I guess there is no guarantee there will be a bonus to anyone anyway and the VR sweetener is better than nowt. Thanks for all replies.

getmore4less

Since they are PILON make sure the service for redundancy includes the statutory notice(1 week per year upto 12).

This may add a year for anyone that started in April-June.

withabix

My employer does exactly the same thing, although their wording is slightly different, in that anyone on a period of notice on 31st March will not receive the bonus for the previous year to 31st December.

It is all to do with continuing employment and the earning, payment and notice elements are all part of a cunning plan to make it difficult for an employee to decide when and if to leave a company.

As for the OP's plight, you will lose this argument, as it is a discretionary bonus.

WoB

Thanks all for replies - always worth gauging opinions from people with more knowledge.

:beer: