Can my company with-hold commissions in NY

[star-trekkor66]

I currently work for a company in New York. The commission structure was changed this past September. We were originally getting paid commissions on sales the month following the sale but now, we must sell a certain number of units per month in order to get paid. If we didn't make the monthly quota (due to lack of sales, customer cancellations, etc.) our commissions would be held until February 2001. To make matters worse, we were given a quota to reach by the end of the year and if we do not reach the assigned quota by 12/31 then all of our held commissions would be forfeited. Now that December is here and sales are traditionally slow, 95% of the sales force (including me) is facing losing their commissions. I have started investigating other employment and was told that if I leave the company, I will lose all rights to the commissions and will not recieve the commission due from last month (which I made my monthly quota). Is this legal? This has caused great financial hardship on me and several of my co-workers and we are starting to talk about class-action law suits. Is that a good idea?

 

[wowie]

I am not an attorney. . .

All I wanted to say is good luck. My husband was in retail sales for 5 years and he recently went throught something similar to your situation in Ohio. The kicker was that the company had changed upper-level management and the new management was trying to drive the business into the ground. My hubby was one of the first to lose his job under the "new" sales codes even though he was one of their top writers. They also made the change during a slow sales time where many writers weren't even gonna make draw. The remaining sales force formed a union. . . i'm not sure that I reccommend this because the union ties made it very difficult for the former employees to find new jobs. Whew! I don't know the ins and outs of your whole situation, but I would consider talking to an attorney who is intimate with employees' rights. . . and I think I would start looking in the want ads