Commission not being paid

HC2020

Hi, i wanted to get some advice, and if anyone can help.
I am owed commission from 2019, which i was meant to receive in January 2020. In January i was told i would not be being paid my yearly bonus, as one specific client did not match the criteria of what the company classed as a new business deal. (They however paid me in 2 quarters for the same client in 2019 where this did meet the criteria).
They are now refusing to also pay me on this technicality for a new deal that is coming in with the same client. As the client in question is also looking to extend the contract, they are now refusing to pay me commission on this new deal, eventhough i have done alot of work on this client to date.
Can i please have some help/advice? it would be much appreciated.

Brynsam

If you don't meet the precise terms on which commission is paid, then your employer can refuse to pay it, whatever work you've done on this client and whatever basis they paid commission for the same client in 2019. Do you meet the terms or not? If you don't, I'm afraid you are unlikely to be see any commission. If you do, you need to politely point this out to the employer and ask them to confirm which part of the commission terms you have failed to meet.

Undervalued

HC2020 said:
Hi, i wanted to get some advice, and if anyone can help. 

I am owed commission from 2019, which i was meant to receive in January 2020. In January i was told i would not be being paid my yearly bonus, as one specific client did not match the criteria of what the company classed as a new business deal. (They however paid me in 2 quarters for the same client in 2019 where this did meet the criteria).
They are now refusing to also pay me on this technicality for a new deal that is coming in with the same client. As the client in question is also looking to extend the contract, they are now refusing to pay me commission on this new deal, eventhough i have done alot of work on this client to date.
Can i please have some help/advice? it would be much appreciated.

If the "technicality" is technically correct then they can!

Bonuses are normally "discretionary" and the normal legal interpretation of this is that the employer's discretion if really quite wide. It is generally difficult to challenge unless the discretion is so far off as to be perverse.

Sorry to be blunt but could this be, rightly or wrongly, an expression of general dissatisfaction with some aspects of your work? 

TELLIT01

If you push too hard the company may say that you shouldn't have received the original payment and demand it be repaid.  I would be careful.

sharpe106

Without knowing what the criteria is and why the company does not think it meets the criteria nobody can advise you. But tellito1 does make a good point they may have made a mistake on the last bonus and could decide they want it back.