Losing Commission when resigning?

[AyBee]

zollburgers said:

I think they are taking the piss a bit with their terms but the spirit of the clause appears to be that you should have got no commission and only did so because of their mistake.

I think I agree with MagicalTrevor, although I've never worked in a commission based role, I always assumed the spirit was that you don't get to keep the commission from the month that you leave, but that any commission from months prior to that was fair game. OP left at the end of May, so got no commission for May (fair) but worked 27 days of May and they'd like his commission from April...

OP, if you'd like to drop me a direct mail, I'd be happy to look at your handbook/take a look over emails they're sending you (assuming that's how communication is taking place).

[anonymous-user]

AyBee said:

I see where you're coming from, but it mentions nothing about paying in error, it says which have not been paid, the OP has been paid commission, therefore he's within the wording of the handbook and allowed to keep it IMO and I'd argue that very strongly if I wanted to keep the money. I think it's generally accepted that the company keeps commission for the month in which the employee leaves, I think it's fairly harsh on the employee to think that they can claim back commission for the month prior to the employee leaving.

Also, is a month a calendar month or a payment month (I don't know if your handbook defines months OP?), if it's the latter, then the paragraph from his handbook has been abided by...

The words in the handbook are straightforward. The OPs colleague only received the commission because he resigned after the payroll for the month had been processed. In other words, the commission payment was not owed. That the amount was paid would be irrelevant, other than it means some inconvenience to the OP's colleague and his ex-employer.

Companies have payroll anomalies and overpay individuals all of the time. It doesn't matter what's in the bank, it's what was contractually owed. If they've overpaid the money it needs to be paid back.

I assume if the individual didn't like losing the commission he could have negotiated a different contractual term or timed his resignation very slightly differently.