Barnaby Large has been published in relation to successfully resisting all but a minimal award arising from an unclear commission scheme in a high value wages claim turning on the interpretation of ‘gross’ and ‘margin’ – Below are the reserved Judgement and brief reasons, however , to read the full decision please click https://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKET/2020/3321615_2019.html
RESERVED JUDGMENT
The reserved judgment of the tribunal is that:
- The claimant’s claim for unauthorised deductions in respect of unpaid expenses is dismissed by the consent of the parties.
- The respondent has made an unauthorised deduction from the claimant’s wages in respect of unpaid commission and is ordered to pay to the claimant the sum of £1,195.39
REASONS
Introduction
- The respondent is a specialist consultancy providing consulting, implementation and support expertise in the deployment of Electronic Content Management services in the healthcare, local government and financial services sectors. The claimant was employed by the respondent as its Business Development Manager from 9 April 2018 until 25 April 2019. Mr Brice brings two claims for unauthorised deduction from wages. The first, a claim for unpaid expenses. Secondly, a claim for unpaid commission on sales. During the hearing the parties reached agreement on the claim for unpaid expenses. In these circumstances, that aspect of the claim was dismissed by the consent of the parties. That left the claim for unpaid commission as the sole remaining matter for the tribunal’s determination. Put simply, this is a dispute about how the claimant’s contract of
employment provides for the calculation of commission on sales. The claimant’s first position is that he was entitled to be paid six percent of the respondent’s total gross sales without any deduction from the gross sales figure. The respondent’s first position is that the claimant was entitled to be paid six percent of the gross sales margin. If the claimant is wrong about his first position, there is a further dispute about what costs should be deducted from the respondent’s gross sales before the claimant’s entitlement to six percent commission on that gross margin is calculated.
