Bonus pay after maternity leave

didnof

I have been on maternity leave since October 2014. I am a fee earner in a law practice and my employer runs a bonus scheme based on the total annual billing to annual salary ratio. I record my time to keep track of billing and it is quite common for invoices to be raised some time after the work is done and time is recorded, depending on how long a task takes, time taken to receive instructions from clients or various billing arrangements where clients receive invoices at the end of each month. As such, my billing figures up to December are higher than my billing figures up to end of September when I went on maternity leave. I have just found out that my bonus last year was calculated based on billing figures up to October and not based on my total annual billing. This resulted in a bonus smaller by about 3000 pounds. I feel this is wrong, since the billing raised between October and December was based on my work done in 2014, prior to my maternity leave. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Takeaway_Addict

Ask them why they have changed it?

asajj

Hard to say anything. It could well be that they have changed their policy.
Surely you may feel this is unfair but probably you'd need to talk to them first to see if there is something wrong and that advice is required.

didnof

There has not been a change as such,I am trying to work out whether is fair that everyone else's bonus is calculated based on the full year billing, but mine is calculated based on billing only until I go on maternity leave. This is despite the fact that it is usual for billing to be carried out months after the work is done.

asajj

It isn't unusual that they will pay a pro-rate bonus when you are on maternity. I believe that is similar to basic salary when you are on maternity leave. So if bonus is part of your package, it will get the same treatment as per your salary. Below might help.

http://www.workingmums.co.uk/advice-and-support/all/888103/bonuses-and-maternity-leave-ask-the-expert.thtml

Takeaway_Addict

didnof wrote: »

There has not been a change as such,I am trying to work out whether is fair that everyone else's bonus is calculated based on the full year billing, but mine is calculated based on billing only until I go on maternity leave. This is despite the fact that it is usual for billing to be carried out months after the work is done.

Presumably though those that get paid for a year will also have work that isn't billed within the 12 months and goes into the following year.

Would the stuff that got billed after your bonus date be applied to the following year?

didnof

I don't think it will get applied to next year, I'll just lose it. So this following year will be affected as well.

Takeaway_Addict

didnof wrote: »

I don't think it will get applied to next year, I'll just lose it. So this following year will be affected as well.

What happens to the billing which goes after the 12 months for non maternity people?

didnof

It is part of the billing of next year (2015)

Takeaway_Addict

didnof wrote: »

It is part of the billing of next year (2015)

You need to ask them really, would you get the 3k in 2015 by the figures not billed?

Sounds unfair really but whether illegal or not things could get more complicated

asajj

didnof wrote: »

I don't think it will get applied to next year, I'll just lose it. So this following year will be affected as well.

Well you say you don't "think" but you don't know - your best bet now is to talk to them and see what they say. They may well come and say that you should have finished your billings before going on leave. Your managers should have made it clearer that before regardless.