Redundancy

Want2know

Im shortly being made redundant.

My issue is that I am missing out on a bonus payment which is due to be paid 10 days after my leaving date and it is mandatory that you have to be employed on this date to receive the bonus.

Currently I have 15 days holiday to take and my employer wants to pay for these + my redundancy payment but not the bonus payment.

Is there any law I can quote to say that I want to take my holidays which will bring me up to the date on which the bonus payment would be made?

From what I have learned based on the date you are being made redundant all outstanding holidays must be paid for. Can I avoid this and instead take my holidays?

Irish_Elect_Eng

Unfortunately, I don't believe that you have any recourse here.

Kristopherus

Is the bonus worth more than the 15days A.L in money terms?

Want2know

Kristopherus wrote: »

Is the bonus worth more than the 15days A.L in money terms?

Yes the bonus is worth alot more than the paid holidays

iwillhtfu

Is it not more than likely your employer isn't going to pay anyone a bonus if they're laying off staff.

I'm sure even if your were kept on they would probably say you didn't earn/qualify for the bonus. I've yet to hear of a mandatory bonus.

Want2know

iwillhtfu wrote: »

Is it not more than likely your employer isn't going to pay anyone a bonus if they're laying off staff.

I'm sure even if your were kept on they would probably say you didn't earn/qualify for the bonus. I've yet to hear of a mandatory bonus.

Yes the bonus is mandatory and part of my contract of employment. The only issue is that you still need to be an employee on a specific date after my leaving date.

Nody

Want2know wrote: »

Is there any law I can quote to say that I want to take my holidays which will bring me up to the date on which the bonus payment would be made?

Nope; holidays are decided by the employer and legally can be paid at end of employment only.

From what I have learned based on the date you are being made redundant all outstanding holidays must be paid for. Can I avoid this and instead take my holidays?

Only if your employer allows you to (which they don't have to and most would not).

Hence the long and short story is you're basically out of luck. The only argument you can raise would be to have your average salary calculated up for the mandatory bonus payment split over 52 weeks but nothing else.

allibastor

Have you actually spoken to your company yet?

What sort of exact time frame is involved with this bonus payment.

If they have picked a specific date just before this it would seem they have set it out to have you finish before the date and don't want to pay.

iwillhtfu

I'd imagine you have some form of argument unless the company is going out of business they're clearly trying to avoid paying this bonus. As mentioned above I'd say you might have a point if you were to ask for a percentage of this bonus.

Do you honestly think you deserve it though? I'm not saying you don't but there's no point taking this down a legal road only for your employer t turn around with evidence of poor performance or something which will cast a bad light over you.

As above maybe discuss this with your employer perhaps they intend on paying you a percentage of this bonus or maybe it's included in your redundancy package. Are you in a union?

Snakeweasel

I don't think you have a claim to it, but if the company is decent enough and you had a fairly good working relationship with them, I wouldn't be surprised if they would agree to paying a pro rata amount of the bonus. Most employers would look at a redundancy situation with a bit more flexibility around mandatory dates than if someone resigned or had their employment terminated through their disciplinary procedures.

Want2know

Yes I've spoken to the company and asked them can I use my holidays to get to the specified date so that Im entitled to the bonus but they have refused to do this. They also will not compromise and give me a % of this up to my leaving date.

TheBlock

Is this a VR? Are you getting statutory redundancey only or Stat plus an Ex gratia payment? If you are getting the later maybe the employer feels that this covers your entitlements to both stat redundance and your bonus.

Have you done the sums? Reember your Exgratia should be tax free and your bonus wouldn't be.

Mrs OBumble

When you went to work there, you signed a contract which agreed to that approach - knowing full well that it was possible you would leave shortly before a bonus was paid.

A lawyer might be able to some up with a clever argument which could be used to argue it legally.

But from the point of view of every-day employment law, which Workplace Relations or the like could help you with the enforcement, I would say that you are plain out of luck.

Even without the bonus issue, employers usually pay out your annual leave on the day you physically leave, rather than letting you take it: the reason for this is that you continue to accrue annual leave while you are on leave, so it costs lets for them to end it as early as possible.