Mrs S Whitland v Pathways Care Group Limited — 2022

Mrs Whitland worked for the respondent from 21 September 2016 and, from 15 October 2019, as a Home Manager. Her written employment contract dated 16 October 2019, and later amendments dated 1 April 2021 and 8 September 2021, did not provide for a bonus entitlement or for participation in a bonus scheme. The tribunal found that the Management Bonus Scheme was a separate document expressly described as a non-contractual bonus scheme, and that there was no term of the contract incorporating it. Relying on Pendragon Plc v Jackson, the judge held that the express non-contractual wording meant there was no intention to create legal relations and that implying a bonus right would be inconsistent with the scheme.

The claimant emailed the respondent on 5 April 2022 and again on 12 April 2022 asking whether resigning before the final calculation or payment date would affect her yearly bonus. John Godden replied on 12 April 2022 that if she resigned before the bonus was payable she would not be eligible for the discretionary payment. The tribunal accepted the respondent's evidence that the claimant did not challenge that response by email, and found that the scheme was intended in part to incentivise managers to remain in employment until payment. The claimant resigned on 12 May 2022, with employment ending on 10 June 2022, before the final calculation and the usual June/July payment period.

The tribunal held that there was no legally enforceable entitlement to the bonus under either the employment contract or the scheme. It therefore dismissed the breach of contract claim and also rejected the unlawful deduction from wages aspect, holding that the bonus did not form part of the wages properly payable on termination within sections 13 and 27 of the Employment Rights Act 1996. The respondent accepted that if a bonus were payable, the amount would have been £4,182, but no award was made.