Bonus

[norcojim]

What is the name of your state? California. About a month ago I was notified that my department was being consolidated with a larger branch of our company. I am a file clerk and have worked at this branch for 8 years and 10 months. I was offered a severance pay of 1 week for every year or to be kept at my present branch as a part time employee or transferring to the new branch as a part time employee since there were no longer any full time employees in that catagory. Each year the company has some type of bonus plan. The plan starts at the first of each year and runs through the end of the year. It is stipulated in information supplied to us that to qualify for the bonus the individual has to be there through the year. Someone coming in March would qualify providing they finished out the year and the figure they would recieve would be prorated based on the time they worked. If you worked from the 1st of the year and quit in November you did not qualify. One further stipulation is in order to collect you would have to be here when the bonus is paid out and the figures would be released during the 1st quarter of the year. That would mean the bonus would be paid sometime in March and since I accepted the severance my last day of work is February 15th. Is this fair?

 

[Beth3]

Whether it's fair is irrelevant. The question is whether it's legal. Many employers' bonus plans require that the individual still be employed when the bonuses are actually paid out, even if they have met the eligibility requirements. I can't speak to your employer's bonus plan in particular since I don't know what type of plan it is but I can tell you that that requirement is legal as long as this is a "cash payout" bonus plan and not a deferred compensation bonus plan such as a profit sharing component of a 401(k) or similar retirement plan.