Wages owed

Kimia

Hi there,

Does anyone know how you can go about getting wages that are owed to you from the company? I left my job about 4 months ago and they still owe me about €500 in agreed commission, no sign of it yet despite several calls and emails.

What is the procedure for this?

MyKeyG

Kimia wrote: »

Hi there,

Does anyone know how you can go about getting wages that are owed to you from the company? I left my job about 4 months ago and they still owe me about €500 in agreed commission, no sign of it yet despite several calls and emails.

What is the procedure for this?

If you have proof that the money was agreed and earned and proof that it wasn't paid (bank statements etc) I'd imagine small claims court is your best bet.

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/justice/courts_system/small_claims_court.html

Kimia

Thanks Mykeyg. I have a feeling it'll be more complicated than that. I have a print out of what is owed to me (they never emailed anything so as to avoid a paper trail) so I don't have anything which states that I'm entitled to it except that. Also it's based on there being no bad debt so I have no way of knowing whether or not the sales were paid. They could easily say that they never received payment from the clients therefore they can't pay me. I don't know what to do.

MyKeyG

Kimia wrote: »

Thanks Mykeyg. I have a feeling it'll be more complicated than that. I have a print out of what is owed to me (they never emailed anything so as to avoid a paper trail) so I don't have anything which states that I'm entitled to it except that. Also it's based on there being no bad debt so I have no way of knowing whether or not the sales were paid. They could easily say that they never received payment from the clients therefore they can't pay me. I don't know what to do.

Yes but as the respondent if they were to make a claim that the monies were not at all or only partially received they would have to substanciate that claim. You can't just walk into small claims court and say 'sorry guys but we didn't receive payment for the sales in question' and then be on their merry way.

As for the printout is there anything that indicates it was produced by the company? If it's just a piece of printed paper then I'm afraid you may well be stuck. There needs to be a signed agreement for it to be legally binding.

Your only option may be to rock the boat as much as you can. They may not want the aggro.

Kosseegan

The small claims court does not deal with these types of dispute. It will be either a Rights Commissioner or the District Court.

Trashbat

HI OP.

To be brutally honest I don't think you are owed this money. Sales commission is generally seen as a discretionary bonus, so wouldn't be paid if agreement to leave is in place. We had this in my place recently, and they told the guy to take a running jump.

Commissions and bonuses shouldnt be seen as a guarantee. Only what is enshrined in your contract of employment can be guaranteed. A company would want to be very Naive to put commission in writing.

Still though, worth exploring every avenue you can!

Good luck

Kimia

Just an update on this. Haven't received a penny. What can I do?

Why is commission discretionary? I have never heard this before and it's been part of any salary package I've ever had.

MyKeyG

Kimia wrote: »

Why is commission discretionary? I have never heard this before and it's been part of any salary package I've ever had.

I've never heard of it either. It's not discretionary as far as I know. I suspect the individual in the last posters example had it as part of his contract and that's why he got nothing.