The Employment Court recently upheld a decision made by the Employment Relations Authority to support an employee’s claim to commission from sales.

The employee argued 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. The ERA rejected this as a lot of the employee’s functions were to oversee the team’s sales. The employer was not able to support its position by records of sales made.

The other key issue for employer’s to note is the need to have an Employment Agreement updated if an employee’s role changes. In this case the dispute was around what the employee’s role actually was. Updating the role description would have avoided a lot of the arguments.