Mr A Cowle v Air Plants Dust Extraction Ltd Heard: by CVP — 2024

The claimant, a former Area Sales Engineer, brought a claim for unpaid commission against his former employer following the termination of his employment on 5 May 2022. He initially claimed £8,760, later revised the figure to £5,503.98 during the hearing, and accepted that his original figure had been an estimate. The respondent's evidence, supported by a commission spreadsheet, was that the claimant had been paid £10,560 in commission for the relevant financial year, which matched what was due under the commission scheme.

The Tribunal accepted the respondent's evidence as clear and credible. It found that the commission scheme operated such that no further commission was paid in respect of invoices issued after an employee left, even on contracts they had previously worked on or secured. The claimant produced no evidence to support his wider allegations that commission had been paid to others on sales he had secured.

The respondent conceded during the hearing that an invoice of £4,000 had been omitted from the spreadsheet, generating £120 of unpaid commission. The Tribunal found that the respondent had made an unauthorised deduction from wages of £120 under section 13 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, and ordered the respondent to pay that sum to the claimant.