Bonus

Spoken_2

Hi,

I just wanted to get an understanding under case law with regards to payment of a bonus.

My company has a year end of the end of June. Bonus wise the bonus period in my employment contract recognises the full year period and hence the bonus period up to the end of June. My  contract states I have to be at the company in the Autumn when the bonuses are paid out. I’m finishing up at the company at the end of June or early July. It seems some people at the company are getting made redundant and negotiating an element of their bonus also to be paid.
I’ve managed to find myself a new job and I’m leaving on my own accord. 

I would be interested to know if I have a case or not and whether I should get legal advice.

Thanks. 


 

74jax

Spoken_2 said:

Hi,

I just wanted to get an understanding under case law with regards to payment of a bonus.

My company has a year end of the end of June. Bonus wise the bonus period in my employment contract recognises the full year period and hence the bonus period up to the end of June. My  contract states I have to be at the company in the Autumn when the bonuses are paid out. I’m finishing up at the company at the end of June or early July. It seems some people at the company are getting made redundant and negotiating an element of their bonus also to be paid.
I’ve managed to find myself a new job and I’m leaving on my own accord. 

I would be interested to know if I have a case or not and whether I should get legal advice.

Thanks. 


 

Unfortunately unlikely. I worked for huge company and our year end was also June. Bonus was paid on the year in Sept/Oct as long as you hadn't handed your notice in.
Redundancy is obviously different, but leaving of your own accord would mean you lost any bonus. The main time for people leaving was always after bonus was paid out.
You'll probably find it's descretionary too. 

General_Grant

Spoken_2 said:

Hi,

I just wanted to get an understanding under case law with regards to payment of a bonus.

My company has a year end of the end of June. Bonus wise the bonus period in my employment contract recognises the full year period and hence the bonus period up to the end of June. My  contract states I have to be at the company in the Autumn when the bonuses are paid out. I’m finishing up at the company at the end of June or early July. It seems some people at the company are getting made redundant and negotiating an element of their bonus also to be paid.
I’ve managed to find myself a new job and I’m leaving on my own accord. 

I would be interested to know if I have a case or not and whether I should get legal advice.

Thanks. 

So you will not be there when the bonus should be paid and you are not being dismissed on the grounds of redundancy.  There are no grounds that I can see for you to be negotiating anything. 

If your household insurance policy includes legal advice for employment issues, then you could ask there.  If there are any local solicitors offering free legal advice, you could ask them.  But I don't think it would be worth paying for advice if you have not been advised you are in a redundancy situation but have simply decided to get out with a job to go to.

AskAsk

you have to feel sorry for those who have been made redundant as most likely they have not been fortunate enough to find another/better job to go to like you have so the company may have made the decision to be generous and give them some of the bonus expected later in the year as it is not their fault that they can't be there later in the year to collect their bonus, and they may not find another job easily or quickly.

you have made the decision to leave as you have found somewhere better so as your terms state, you won't be entitled to the bonus as you won't be there when it becomes payable.

TELLIT01

The OP has chosen to leave, those made redundant have no choice.  The OPs contract states that an employee must still be with the company when the bonus is paid out.  The OP knows that, has chosen to leave so loses any right to bonus payment.  The company is making an ex-gratia payment equivalent to a proportion of the bonus to those being made redundant.

Undervalued

TELLIT01 said:

The OP has chosen to leave, those made redundant have no choice.  The OPs contract states that an employee must still be with the company when the bonus is paid out.  The OP knows that, has chosen to leave so loses any right to bonus payment.  The company is making an ex-gratia payment equivalent to a proportion of the bonus to those being made redundant.

I agree entirely.

You do not generally have a right to be treated more favourably than your contract requires just because other employees are. The only exceptions would be if it amounted to unlawful discrimination (race, gender etc etc) or if you were part time and being treated less favourably (pro rata) than a full time person.

Spoken_2

Thanks for all comments. Case closed.