Settled a case concerning a salesperson who was paid pursuant to a new commission agreement that did not comply with Labor Code Section 2751. That Labor Code section requires that all commission agreements be in writing and specify how commissions are calculated. It further specifies that a new agreement is void if not in compliance with the law, and that an employee’s old commission agreement will be used to calculate commissions due. The old agreement provided for substantially higher commissions.
Resolved a case wherein an employee was set to receive a substantial year-end bonus at the end of December, and the company terminated him as part of a lay off on December 14th.
Settled a case involving a commissioned salesperson who resigned, but was later not paid commissions she believed were due under her agreement by contract. The dispute was whether the claimed commissions were “earned” by the employee, i.e. were all legal conditions precedent to payment met, or were the commissions not earned because other employees had to perform work in connection with the deals that would generate the commissions.
Resolved a case concerning an employee who was terminated and not paid their annual bonus. The employee claimed the bonus was “wages” under the Labor Code because the bonus was “non-discretionary.” The company claimed the bonus was discretionary, and that it had the right to decide whether or not to pay the bonus to the departing employee.