6 month notice to get paid bonus

alana171

my employer has told us that if we don’t sign a new contract with a new 6 month notice period (regardless of where you go) we won’t be paid any bonus or be eligible for the bonus scheme. 

It seems excessive. Is this allowed?

EnPointe

alana171 said:

my employer has told us that if we don’t sign a new contract with a new 6 month notice period (regardless of where you go) we won’t be paid any bonus or be eligible for the bonus scheme. 

It seems excessive. Is this allowed?

is the Current Bonus Scheme Contractual ? 

if it's not they can do what they want  and have not  materially  diminished your contractual compensation ...

TELLIT01

Generally bonus payments are discretionary and the company can apply pretty much any rules they want on them.  They could simply scrap bonus payments completely if they wanted to.  6 months notice does seem excessive unless it is an extremely niche business.  I have vague recollections about excessive notice periods not being enforcable, but others may be able to say if that recollection is correct or not.

Marcon

alana171 said:

my employer has told us that if we don’t sign a new contract with a new 6 month notice period (regardless of where you go) we won’t be paid any bonus or be eligible for the bonus scheme. 

It seems excessive. Is this allowed?

You have to give notice of 6 months...does your employer have to give you 6 months? 

Undervalued

Marcon said:

alana171 said:

my employer has told us that if we don’t sign a new contract with a new 6 month notice period (regardless of where you go) we won’t be paid any bonus or be eligible for the bonus scheme. 

It seems excessive. Is this allowed?

You have to give notice of 6 months...does your employer have to give you 6 months? 

There is no legal requirement for contractual notice periods to be equal.

Undervalued

TELLIT01 said:

Generally bonus payments are discretionary and the company can apply pretty much any rules they want on them.  They could simply scrap bonus payments completely if they wanted to.  6 months notice does seem excessive unless it is an extremely niche business.  I have vague recollections about excessive notice periods not being enforcable, but others may be able to say if that recollection is correct or not.

Yes and no!

If an employee fails to work their agreed notice the employer may have a legal claim against them for any losses that causes over and above the saving in wages. In some circumstances that could be very substantial. However, as in all civil claims, the employer would be expected to take all reasonable steps to minimise their losses. They can't simply run the employee up a big bill just to teach them a lesson! Obviously the longer the notice period the more difficult it would be for the employer to be able to truthfully claim that the couldn't arrange cover or a replacement as the weeks go by. Also, if the employee was so vital to the business a prudent company would have contingency plans for possible illness (or worse). Nobody is (or should be) indispensable!

DullGreyGuy

Using the thread of withholding discretionary bonuses is a fairly common tactic for "encouraging" people to sign new contracts. As long as your contract states the bonus is discretionary or there is nothing in your contract about bonuses then it's all fair.

As long as the notice period is symmetrical then generally it's considered a better thing to have a long notice period. Indeed the only person that refused to sign a new contract was someone with a 12 month notice period which would have gone down to 3 months. About 3 months later he was made redundant so got a large cash in lieu of notice plus then the redundancy on top, certainly more valuable than the bonus. 

Marcon

Undervalued said:

Marcon said:

alana171 said:

my employer has told us that if we don’t sign a new contract with a new 6 month notice period (regardless of where you go) we won’t be paid any bonus or be eligible for the bonus scheme. 

It seems excessive. Is this allowed?

You have to give notice of 6 months...does your employer have to give you 6 months? 

There is no legal requirement for contractual notice periods to be equal.

That's precisely why I'm asking the question. If the employer is trying to foist a 6 month notice period on their employees, but only 'giving' statutory (or a much shorter) notice in return, it's a very poor deal indeed.

alana171

thanks everyone for the comments!