bonus not paid

[mrrj]

Hi all can anyone tell me if an employer can stop a bonus for a period complete. I get a 3 monthly bonus paid for attendance and

figures . my employer has written to me today and told me i will not get paid for the period oct-dec 2014 or the period jan-mar 2015 . I can tell you the bonus is not linked to my contract. They claim that their budget has not been achieved in this period .

[numbers666]

As most companies state, mine certainly does, a bonus is discretionary and not contractual.

 

As I see from you post, you acknowledge this.

 

Perhaps negotiate some other 'reward' - like a long weekend or something if your employer is flexible and your absence does not cause additional grief to others.

[mrrj]

the most annoying thing is that i have gone above and beyond for the last six months including working whilst sick to make this bonus !!

[becky2585]

If it's discretionary, then provided that they haven't acted capriciously or unreasonably (to a perverse extent) in withholding the bonus then they can probably legitimately refuse to pay it.

 

Unfair, but not unlawful.

[p3t3r]

Your employers claim that the profit/budget has not been achieved, so they stopped the bonus.

 

Whilst you may not see this as being fair, the other side of the coin is that previously you had been given bonus - and it would be far better to lose your current bonus than to lose your job further in the future if your employers profits are down.

[ericsbrother]

how do they determine the attendance part of the bonus? You may have some scope for negotiating a better basic if that is considered as being an attribute for performance based pay. Is it normal to pay the bonus so far in arrears if targets are set quarterly? Again, room for negotiation as it does seem wrong to tell someone 3 months after the event you arent getting something promised on a quarterly basis.

[Sidewinder]

The only thing to add is whether ANYBODY got the bonus or whether you are being singled out? You may or may not know that, but if it were to be the case that a 'discretionary' bonus was being paid to some but not others then there may be an argument that the treatment was discriminatory - for example if female colleagues were rewarded but males were not.

 

Personally I hate seeing the word 'discretionary' in a contract term as it does tend to invite such allegations, but in very limited cases it may well be the case that the bonus has been apportioned unfairly and even unlawfully.

[mrrj]

The attendance part of the bonus is quite simple , 2 days sick in the quarter nothing paid.

[mrrj]

I feel they left it 3 months after it was due so nobody got upset and let the figures go downhill in the next bonus period. Funny how i was notified on the last day of jan-march bonus period.

[Ethel Street]

It's common (and legal) for company bonus schemes to say that irrespective of whether the individual meets their personal targets a bonus will only be paid if the company as a whole makes a profit or meets its targets. That's always been in the bonus 'rules' of every company I've worked for. It sounds like there's something similar in your scheme and that's why you aren't getting a bonus. Annoying for you, I can see that, but not much you can do about it unless, as Sidewinder says, it's being applied in a legally discriminatory way.

[mrrj]

After a meeting with a regional manger we went through the power point that was presented to us explaining the bonus scheme and it had no mention and any term and conditions.