Employers must record sales correctly where commission is involved…

The Employment Court recently upheld a decision made by the Employment Relations Authority to support the Employee’s claim that his right to commission from sales made was greater than the Employer claimed at the time the Employee was made redundant.

The Employee argued that he was to receive commission when his entire sales team reached a target over 50%. The Employer disputed this and claimed the Employee was only entitled to commission when he was reaching the 50% target himself. The Employer supported this claim by arguing that the Employee did not hold a supervisor role and was therefore not entitled to claim commission from the team’s sales. This claim was contradicted as a lot of the Employee’s obligations were to oversee the team’s sales.

The evidence given by the Employer was contradicted several times, this shows the necessity for employers to keep well recorded sales spreadsheets where commission is involved. The other key issue for Employers to note is the need to have an Employment Agreement updated if an Employee’s role changes, in this case the dispute was centred around what the Employee’s role actually was. These issues can be avoided when necessary preventative steps are taken by the Employer.