An employment tribunal has dismissed a solicitor’s claim for a bonus of nearly £10,000 following a contractual dispute with his previous employer.
The claimant, Alex Anastasiou, started working as an associate director and team leader at London-based Fullers Family Law in December 2022. His contract included a bonus scheme that pays 30% of all fees received over three times his £90,000 annual salary.
The law firm calculated contractual bonuses by reference to annual work anniversaries, rather than its financial year, however this had not been made clear to Anastasiou, either orally or within his contract. Although he was aware that the firm’s financial year ran from 1 April, it had not been discussed what 12-month period would be used to calculate the potential bonus.
Fullers declined to pay a bonus for Anastasiou’s work year to December 2023, during which he had generated £250,000 in fees. It rejected the grievance he raised.
The tribunal stated that if it was calculated on the financial year, Anastasiou would have been entitled to a bonus of £9,608, however on the basis of his work anniversary, he had not earned one.
It held that he had not proven his contract required the firm to calculate the bonus using its financial year and was also satisfied that the practice was to calculate contractual bonuses based on start dates.
Judge Tinnion said: “This fact, known by the respondent, was not known by the claimant, but was information reasonably available to him at the time – had he asked the question, he would have been told that, and there is no reason to think that if he had been told that, he would have been dissatisfied with that answer, or sought to renegotiate that part of the contract to provide for a different reference period.
“It will be of no comfort to the claimant, but the tribunal accepts the dispute which has arisen is entirely of the respondent’s own making, arising from its failure to notify the claimant in writing at the outset of his employment what the contractual bonus reference period would be.”
Fullers Family Law declined to comment.
