not paying christmas bonus. can they do this?

zip1980

my oh and 3 of his mates started working for a company before christmas last year they all started on £10ph and were told after 3 months it would increase to £12ph like every one else, well the months went by, the company was taken over by tyco and they didnt recieve their pay rise, now after months of complaining about this they are all being given their pay rises, but today they have all been told that because they are getting this, they arent going to recieve their christmas bonus (they get this for not having any sick days off in the year) obviously they are all fuming :mad:
can they just decide they arnt going to pay it?

GregtheHammer

Christmas bonuses are as far as I know optional. Is there anything in their contracts stating a bonus will be paid?

It is a bit off, then again where I work we have never had anything extra at Christmas.

full-time-mum

zip1980 wrote: »

my oh and 3 of his mates started working for a company before christmas last year they all started on £10ph and were told after 3 months it would increase to £12ph like every one else, well the months went by, the company was taken over by tyco and they didnt recieve their pay rise, now after months of complaining about this they are all being given their pay rises, but today they have all been told that because they are getting this, they arent going to recieve their christmas bonus (they get this for not having any sick days off in the year) obviously they are all fuming :mad:
can they just decide they arnt going to pay it?

Not an expert on employment law but it would seem to me that if everyone else is getting their sickless bonus and the others qualify then they would have a case for discrimination.

Questions that are probably relevant...
What is the bonus worth?
Are they getting their pay back dated?
Is any of this in writing?

I'm sure someone more expert will be along shortly.

I'd be fuming too...:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

zip1980

not sure if its in their contract when the business was sold to tyco we just recieved bits of information in a pack it said in the pack about the bonus, im not even sure if everyone has signed a new contract with tyco, not sure if you have to.

tyco use the bonus as a bribe to make sure everyone is at work, because if the jobs they are on dont get done tyco loses about 10k
i just think its un-fair to give everyone else their bonus and not my oh and his mates, just because they have now decided that they will be payed the same as eveyone else

zip1980

the bonus is £500, they wont be getting the pay back dated
this company does my head in they have been told for the past 9 months "your all getting your pay rise this month" then no your not, then oh yes you are its like f'in panto

now there saying "that bonus we said you were getting this month, well you aint getting it anymore'.
some of my oh's friend have been a bit ott with christmas presents thinking they were getting this money, why didnt their bosses just keep their traps shut till they knew what they were talking about, it winds me up

Zazen999

Hi
They don't keep their mouths shut as it keeps the people coming into work.

Unfortunately, bonuses are optional, and the first place to look would be whatever contract he is currently signed up to - but i suspect it will say 'discretionary'.

liney

If you have written information regarding the bonus ie its is paid subject to 100% attendance, and other persons have qualified for it, and are receiving it, then as much as i loathe the discrimination bandwagon, there is probably good cause in this case.

Sounds to me like they didn't want to give the payrise, discovered that they are obliged to after digging up the paperwork, and are miffed.

Call ACAS - they will help you.

mountainofdebt

I know when the company that I once worked for was taken over, I had to sign a new contract. However interestingly no one on here has mentioned being transferred under TUPE regulations.

Wouldn't they have applied in this case?

LuciferTDark

A company I worked for used to give Christmas bonuses every year then they were bought by a big multinational & the bonus was history. They don't have to pay a bonus just because the original owners did, the original owners didn't have to pay it either as it was discretionary but it kept the workers happy when they did.

I wouldn't be surprised if talk of redundancies starts in January then gets confirmed by the bosses in time for March & people start to disappear & not get replaced.

Hapless_2

A bonus is like a staff discount, a privilege that can be revoked at any time for any reason.