Performance related bonus reduced after taking redundancy

[aa51210]

Hi all,
I'd really appreciate a steer in the right direction with this one as to whether I have a "case" and if so how to pursue it.

Summarised problem:

Left former employer via voluntary redundancy, performance related bonus was less than anticipated due to underperformance (normally a high performer), feel like company using VR leavers to hit the quotas of underperforming employees.

Bit more detail problem:

I recently took voluntary redundancy (VR), at my former employer, end of March to be precise. A few months before leaving I completed a performance review.
I received a letter from my previous employer the other day to confirm that the company would pay out the performance related bonus for this year, this included VR leavers as the leave date aligned with the financial year.
However, my performance was rated below average. (2 out of 5 for simplicity). 2 receiving 60% of bonus, 3 - 100%, 4 - 120%, 5 - 150%, 1 - 0%.
In my 6 years with the company I had only ever scored 3s and more often 4s. My mid year review during my final year with the company I scored a 3 and at no point was a conversation had with me about my performance being below par. We were always told that your end of year score shouldn't be a surprise, hence my surprise when I received this scoring. In the VR info it stated that there would be no internal appeal process to the performance rating.

As a bit of background, the company's performance grading works like a normal distribution whereby a percentage of employees need to be in the '2' region similar for the 3s and 4s etc.

A long story short, but I feel as if I have been unfairly dropped in the underperforming category as an easy target as I would no longer be at the company and hence unable to appeal. From speaking to a few old colleague I am aware of a few more instances of this happening.
It should be noted that the bonus amount is not massive and to be honest, it’s not really the money that bothers me, but the principle of what has happened makes my blood boil.

Please can someone advise me whether:

1. There is a case to be had?
2. How should I go about raising a case? (NB I have not made any contact with company yet).

Thanks in advance for any help.

[ULA]

You say that the VR info stated there would be no internal appeal process, if you were still an employee would you have had the ability to raise an appeal about your performance rating?

Were you given any indication in your performance review meeting, which I presume was the final one before you left, to indicate that there was an issue which meant your rating would be reduced from the 3 you receive at your previous review?

[aa51210]

Thanks Ula for your speedy response, it caught be off guard.

If I was still employed I could appeal, yes.

I was never given my final year review as I had left before that time came about. There's about a 2 month lag between submitting and reviewing. So the first I knew I had scored below par was the letter the other day.

Please let me know if I need anymore info. Thanks for your response.

[ULA]

I would suggest that you contact the company and ask them the basis of the review and what in your recent performance review led to the the reduction in your performance rating given your previous record of consistent 3/4 ratings.

[aa51210]

And if there response is unsatisfactory? Ie insufficient details/reasons for the score?
thanks

[aa51210]

So just to put a bit more fuel to the argument.. I've been in contact with a few ex colleagues who took VR and there's about a 50% fallout rate (admittedly from a small sample 8) of people scoring below average who weren't expecting it. It feels like it's systematic.

Normal distribution is about 15% need to score below average but it's not forced so percentages around 10 to 12 are common.

[ULA]

This could be a case of there may be strength in numbers. You could all jointly write into the company, detailing this is a joint concern, even possibly sending in the same worded letter with names altered as necessary then the company may consider its position and fairness as to the performance review scoring for those staff taking VR.