A good friend has signed a job contract in 2025 with a “20% bonus with all targets reached”.
Targets have been achieved, and now … the bonus was paid out… as 1.5% of yearly salary. When the C-levels (small company) were confronted with this, they said “oh yeah, bonuses were never more than 5% yearly here”. Like, excusez-moi?
As long as the bonus is not written as “discretionary”, or “up to”, but the contract has a fix 20% wording with 100% targets reached, what are the chances of putting a legal claim and demanding this bonus out of the company as per contract?
If the company can pay whatever they please, they could’ve written 40 or even 100% bonus, they can always say “oh we didn’t reach out targets this year”… sounds like trickery to inflate offered salaries with some smoke and mirrors.
My favorite AI was undecided how such a case would go at the Schlichtungsbehörde if it got there.
It’s Switzerland, my guess is that yes you could probably get it (if it’s in the contract, and you have proof that targets were reached), at the same time you’d also likely get a notice and not have a job anymore. (yeah the leverage of an employee in Switzerland isn’t very high).
That’s probably the right time to ask legal support of an union if you’re a member, they usually offer that kind of consultation.
That sounds like an employer you don’t want to work for longterm. At our company, the financial target numbers are published at the start of the year, with clear descirption of what milestone will result in X % of our base % in bonus (i.e. you haave a contract of 10% bonus, and then reaching 100% of the target financial numbers will result in 100% of that 10%). It’s a public company so financial statements are also public, no cheating possible.
I would think you can sue your employer for that, if it’s in you work contract. However as @nabalzbhf already said, that willl likely cost your job. I’d probably start looking for a new one, and when you have it, then sue your employer.
That is WIP already (opinion of the legal insurance).
I was thinking the same thing re: getting paid and then getting laid off right away although jobs with higher levels of authority/liability hopefully don’t move that quick for a one-off complaint of being right.
Likely, the devil is in the detail. 20% of what? If indeed the contract guarantees 20% of the annual salary (gross? net?) then he can move on to arbitration and should have no trouble claiming the compensation agreed in the contract.
But what if the contract guarantees 20% of a percentage of additional profits, per capita, post-expense and post-tax, for example? Or the 20% could be a maximum (limit)?
I’ll assume they studied the contract carefully before they signed over their labor (many people do not).
That’s bizarre, any contract I or anyone I know ever held in either SMEs or multinationals had relevant language around any bonus being discretionary, assuming company and/or employee met their targets…as well as that staff on probation or on their notice period are not eligible for a bonus. Edit: and no “up to XYZ%”. My old job had a good system which was not written in the contract: a total of up to 25% bonus, split into 12.5% (company targets) + 12.5% (individual targets), the company meeting its targets meant the bonus was unlocked, then depending on how well the company and employee met their targets they (the employee) could get anywhere between 5% and 25% of a bonus (on their annual salary, that was always defined!).
I never experienced a bonus target detail in an employment contract signed by both parties. It is usually a discretionary statement on another paper when they detail the calculation and based on your company performance and your own performance.
We usually define Objective Key Results separately during the semi/annual review but they do not define the bonus achievements. It is just a driver.
yes absolutely nothing specified clearly in the contract and no supporting “bonus policies” exist. As I said, SMEs are amateurs to a large extent.
“Der Bonus ist gekoppelt an individuelle und finanzielle Ziele, die jährlich neu festgelegt werden. Bei 100% Zielerfüllung beträgt der Bonus 20% vom Basisgehalt.”
But the company targets are neither specified nor communicated transparently, and neither is any calculation algorithm explicitly communicated between individual and company goals, so I’m targeting 100% individual targets which one could argue have been achieved.
She’s not the that checkout+vengeance type. There was a mistake which needs to be corrected and then everyone can keep going on. Unless someone seriously gets pissed, which is proving the point of a “dirty” offer in the first place.
“job contract in 2025 with a “20% bonus with all targets reached”.
Targets have been achieved, and now … the bonus was paid out… as 1.5% of yearly salary. When the C-levels (small company) were confronted with this, they said “oh yeah, bonuses were never more than 5% yearly here”” - doesn’t come across as an unintended ‘mistake’
In any case, intentions are just yaddayadda. The only thing that counts is really what’s documented and signed.
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although jobs with higher levels of authority/liability hopefully don’t move that quick for a one-off complaint of being right.
absolutely nothing specified clearly in the contract and no supporting “bonus policies” exist. As I said, SMEs are amateurs to a large extent.