Andy's Autosport is refusing to pay employees their comission! Advice needed :(
 

SO! Some of you know I am a sales associate at Andy's Autosport...blah blah blah

It is a truly miserable place to work but I make really good money and its flexible with my school hours, and 3 miles from my house so it works out well...somewhat

Long story short.

I work in sales, answering phone calls from the 800 number. I get a $2 bonus for every time I take an order over the phone and (1) charge them full price listed on the website (no discounts) and (2) charge them full recommended shipping (from our shipping chart). If the salesmen do this for each order they get a $2 bonus at the end of the month for each order.

So cool worked out well, I made a few hundred extra for the month of June. July comes along and all is well I am expecting a few hundred more dollars on my bonus check on next Friday.

BUT NO! Today we had our monthly meeting with the manager (individual meetings to discuss monthly performance) and the manager tells us all "we are no longer doing the $2 bonus for the month of August, and we are not going to pay you for your $2 bonus in July because we didn't keep track of it correctly"...blah blah blah.

HOW IS THIS FAIR? OR LEGAL?! What can I do?

I am thinking I will add up all of my $2 transactions and present them with an invoice in a few days and if its not paid then I will submit a claim with the labor board of California (as suggested by whoever answered the phone when I called during lunch today).

What do y'all think? (Especially you older people who have seen/done all this before...)

[B]Cliff notes:[/B] Management promised us bonus at end of month. Refuses to pay us for bonus after work has been completed. What do I do?

Thank you

Bonus is just that. If it's not in your offer letter or contract of employment, they aren't required to pay a bonus. Now in no way is that concrete, just my understanding of how it works, as an upper management guy.


Also not suprised, Andy's has a reputation, haha. Still waiting on a refund for an order through them from 2 months ago.

What he said

It is a bonus, however, they should have warned the sales associates a month prior. If you plan on continuing your employment there, it's probably best you just take that lost.

[QUOTE=Goss408;3432048]Bonus is just that. If it's not in your offer letter or contract of employment, they aren't required to pay a bonus. Now in no way is that concrete, just my understanding of how it works, as an upper management guy.


Also not suprised, Andy's has a reputation, haha. Still waiting on a refund for an order through them from 2 months ago.[/QUOTE]

According to the California Labor Board if they made a statement amount it then they must pay since the work was completed, bonus or not...


If you dont call every single day you will never get the refund. Just saying.

[QUOTE=PaulWalker;3432059]It is a bonus, however, they should have warned the sales associates a month prior. If you plan on continuing your employment there, it's probably best you just take that lost.[/QUOTE]

I could careless if i do or not honestly...thats a big loss, at least half my two week hourly pay check

In that case, maybe all the sales associates can collectively take action.

[QUOTE=BrendanTheGreat;3432061]According to the California Labor Board if they made a statement amount it then they must pay since the work was completed, bonus or not...


If you dont call every single day you will never get the refund. Just saying.
[/QUOTE]

They can "say" whatever they'd like, but once its on paper, signed, its legit. Hell, even if you can find an interoffice memo or something stating the bonus pay per productivity, with their letterhead, you may have a fighting chance. Labor board hearings are a huge drawn out process, not sure how much money your missing out on due to their stingy decision, but it can eat away at your time and resources. So there's that too.

As per the refund, I have a guy on the inside, haha. You sir are not the only person I know who works at Andy's. He's been tracking the process for me the whole way thankfully.

If you perform x to receive y, then that is concidered a wage in California. This is a commission.

A bonus is just that, a bonus. A bonus doesn't require you to meet goals to be able to receive it. It is just given to you with nothing asked in return.


An employer is required to keep records of wages owed. Them saying that they messed up is not an excuse to withhold your pay.

I would file a claim if the company doesn't pay you.

sounds like its time for deep discounts for all callers.

Want free shipping? NO PROBLEM!

Lemme get some bags for the price of RACELANDS!

Is it fair? No...Is it shady? Heck yes...Is it legal? It depends...

As Goss408 touched upon; how formal is this bonus program? How is defined internally? Is it something verbal that management uses to incentivize the sales people...or is actually in company literature and used as a recruiting point...or is it somewhere in between?

Oftentimes companies qualify bonus structures as contingent or discretionary payments based on various factors including management judgement. Obviously, the fine print for such programs isn't explicitely pointed out, written very clear and/or just buried in the documents. Yes, it is shady and not cool, but no it is not illigal.

If it is only verbal, it can become he said/she said...this is where you will need your coworkers and ya'll need to keep your story straight.

If you want to press legal action against them, make sure to find out all of the facts. You don't want to get called out on a technicality. From my experience, Labor Board tells employees to file claims for just about everything...they see employers as guilty until proven innocent.

[QUOTE=jdblock;3432070]If you perform x to receive y, then that is concidered a wage in California. This is a commission.

A bonus is just that, a bonus. A bonus doesn't require you to meet goals to be able to receive it. It is just given to you with nothing asked in return.
[/QUOTE]

There are more than 1 type of bonus. An "earned" bonus, which this is, infact requires a goal met. But once said goal is met, the bonus is considered wages that must be paid. The trick here is proving the employer's promise to pay the bonus on met conditions. Shouldn't be hard to get a few employees in front of a labor hearing board though. Then there's the ole "at will employment" state where they can simply fire you and provide no reason and not be in the wrong, there fore terminating you before the bonus payout date and oweing you nothing more than your hourly wages within 72 hours of termination. But this is all easily re-searchable :) Hope you get it worked out Brendan, not getting what you're owed sucks!

[QUOTE=LxJLthr;3432075]Loabor Board tells people to file claims for just about everything...they see employers guilty until proven guilty.[/QUOTE]


This.

[QUOTE=awdorgtfo;3432073]Lemme get some bags for the price of RACELANDS![/QUOTE]

This. :D

Check your PM's. Don't do anything drastic until you cover your bases. Document, document, document everything from this point forward. Know what I am saying?