Commission Structure Change & Backdated

[BamJaxter]

Hi All

wondering if you can help. I work as a sales person for a company within the UK. My contract states that I have a salary of XX and a bonus structure will be provided to me.

Up until now this this has been fine and I’ve been earning commission under a scheme I have in writing with no future end date.

A decision has has been made by the business to change this commission structure which I have not had in writing and this commission structure will be retrospectively backdated to 1st April 2019. This may have negative impact or positive ones, however, are they legally allowed to change a structure that I have in writing and backdate it to last months sales? This seems hugely underhand and is like to understand the legalities of that.

my understanding would be that a new structure should be presented to an employee in writing with an agreed future date. Not change the goalposts and back date that.

any questions let me know. Any support would be great

[ULA]

Firstly what does your bonus/commission structure policy say about making changes to how the scheme is operated and is there discretion built into it for changes to be made? Is the scheme contractual or non contractual?

Have they given a reason as to why they are wanting to make the changes?

[BamJaxter]

Hi Ula

thanks for getting back to me. My contract states that “A commission structure will be provided to me”. There is no mention of this being discretionary. This is all that is mentioned in my contract. The current commission structure I have mentions no future end or review date.

As as far as I’m concerned, surely until further notice, this is what I am working towards. I am being paid in 7 days based on my April Sales. As of now the only agreed structure is what I am currently paid on and therefore they should honour that agreement.

Kind regards

[ULA]

What I am firstly trying to establish is whether or not the documented scheme is contractual and what provision there are for making changes.

Depending on that there is a difference in approach, however even if there is provision to make changes to the scheme my view is that it should be notified in advance detailing the changes, reasons why and giving reasonable notice of when the changes will take effect from.

[BamJaxter]

Hi Ula

excuse my ignorance on this. What do you mean is this scheme contractual?

My contract states that a commission structure will be will be provided to me. That is all. I have the commission structure in writing from my line manager. Therefore, my view is that was the current structure for what I was selling against last month (April)

kind regards

lewis

[ULA]

Are the terms of your the scheme a contractual clause of your contract or does it sit alongside as a non-contractual scheme subject to management discretion to amend.

However as I have stated at my post #4 even if it is non-contractual there should be reasonable notice of change, what the change will be, why there is to be a change and when the change will become effective.

Your best course of action will be discuss this informally with your manager in advance of initiating any formal grievance.